THE ROLE OF BOEING AND OTHER ST. LOUIS COMPANIES

The years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war were hard on the defense industry. One after another, including McDonell Douglas, were sold, merged or closed. However, among the survivors, was Boeing. Times are not good for Boeing on the civilian side of the business, but despite the loss of the $300 million Joint Strike Fighter contract to Lockheed Martin, the surge of interest in military spending has kept Boeing busy.

In 2002, the Military Space and Aircraft Divisions were merged with headquarters in St. Louis. Now with 15,000 employees devoted to building a wide array of weapons, Boeing is evidence of the power of the Military-Industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned about almost 50 years ago. Here are some of the weapons they build.

• Joint Direct Attack Missiles (JDAMs). These are conventional bombs that are transformed into satellite guided smart bombs with the attachment of a $20,000 guidance kit. The New York Times (December 1, 2002) reports that 2000 kits are produced a month, a rate that is expected to increase to 2,800 kits monthly by next summer. Around 7,000 of these precision bombs were used in Afghanistan, almost 5000 from Boeing. Unfortunately, they weren't always smart. Northern Alliance soldiers, Canadian soldiers, American Special forces and ordinary Afghanistan citizens were killed by these devices.
• Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missiles (CALCMs). More than 300 cruise missiles have been built over the last 10 years both with "blast/fragmentation" war heads, and penetrating warheads able to destroy "hardened or buried targets."
• V-22 Osprey. This combination helicopter and plane has a controversial history and an amazing ability to survive Directors of Defense who have wanted to kill it. The fact that the Marines want it, and now the Army's Special Operations Command, plus the presence of sub-contractors in around 40 states may help account for its survival. The program is said to cost $46 billion.
• Ground-based Midcourse missile defense program. Boeing is coordinating the development of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency layered missile defense programs. The 5 year contract comes to 6.4 billion, with the promise of almost another billion in bonuses. Because of failures in the integrated flight test program, not all of the bonus is likely to materialize.
• Wideband Gapfiller Satellite. This is a 1.3 billion dollar effort to build satellites with commercial technology, allowing it to be produced quickly, but according to some more susceptible to attack.
• Army Future Combat Systems. A multi billion dollar program to provide real time information about what is happening on the battlefield. This system is reported to be entering the design and development stage next year, based on the concept demonstrated in the Boeing Battlefield Integration Center (BIC) in Anaheim, California.
• In-flight Refueling Tankers. A 17 billion dollar program to provide 767s to the Air force allowing them to replace their aging tanker fleet.
• F/A-18 E/F fighters. The Super Hornet is the heart of Navy aviation. At the cost of about 40 million each, more than 500 planes are expected to be purchased by 2010.
• Comanche Helicopter. To be built with the Sirkorsky division of United Technologies, it has been under design since the early 1980s. Originally 1200 were to be purchased. the 2004 budget is reputed to cut the order to 650, at a cost of 40 million an aircraft. The total cost would be 48 billion.