Chris Chadwick, Boeing military aircraft president, called a media roundtable to field questions across the wide range of his business, which includes F/A-18, F-15, C-17, P-8A and Scan Eagle. Here are five random bits of information from my notebook while I continue to work on the news story.
1. Boeing wants to sign up foreign and domestic risk-sharing partners for the F-15 Silent Eagle. Chadwick raised that topic in the context of discussing a theoretical sale of F-15 Silent Eagles to Saudi Arabia.
2. Boeing's internal policy bans "marketing" the F/A-18 or F-15 to Tier 1 and Tier 2 JSF partners (UK, Italy and the Netherlands), but it is "providing information" to those countries. I asked Boeing later to explain the difference.
"For the purposes of this discussion, you can take 'marketing' to mean proactively soliciting decision makers in new markets, with intent to create an opportunity for our aircraft," a spokesman said. "By 'providing information' we mean that we are responding to an unsolicited request (formal or informal) for information about our products/systems."
3. Chadwick confirmed that Qatar is now a sales target for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Last year, the C-17 became the first US military hardware purchased by Qatar ever.
4. The Boeing and Lockheed Martin partnership for the next-generation bomber will remain intact despite the DOD's propsoal to defer the program, Chadwick said. Refocusing the program on unmanned aircraft also would not change the status of the partnership, he said.
5. Chadwick explained his "utopia": "If I were king for a day and there was something the US government would do that would help the F/A-18 in the international arena, it would be for them to just unequivocally let international customers know that no matter what capability or product they would like, the US government stands behind it and it would support their decision as a sovereign country. That would be - that would make my week."
1. Boeing wants to sign up foreign and domestic risk-sharing partners for the F-15 Silent Eagle. Chadwick raised that topic in the context of discussing a theoretical sale of F-15 Silent Eagles to Saudi Arabia.
2. Boeing's internal policy bans "marketing" the F/A-18 or F-15 to Tier 1 and Tier 2 JSF partners (UK, Italy and the Netherlands), but it is "providing information" to those countries. I asked Boeing later to explain the difference.
"For the purposes of this discussion, you can take 'marketing' to mean proactively soliciting decision makers in new markets, with intent to create an opportunity for our aircraft," a spokesman said. "By 'providing information' we mean that we are responding to an unsolicited request (formal or informal) for information about our products/systems."
3. Chadwick confirmed that Qatar is now a sales target for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Last year, the C-17 became the first US military hardware purchased by Qatar ever.
4. The Boeing and Lockheed Martin partnership for the next-generation bomber will remain intact despite the DOD's propsoal to defer the program, Chadwick said. Refocusing the program on unmanned aircraft also would not change the status of the partnership, he said.
5. Chadwick explained his "utopia": "If I were king for a day and there was something the US government would do that would help the F/A-18 in the international arena, it would be for them to just unequivocally let international customers know that no matter what capability or product they would like, the US government stands behind it and it would support their decision as a sovereign country. That would be - that would make my week."
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