Business Insider’s Walter Hickey does a weekly round-up of things the American Department of Defence has purchased, and this week’s contains a line item which basically sums up defence spending.
This is what the contract press release says:
The Boeing Co., Long Beach, Calif., is being awarded a $500,000,000 firm-fixed-price and cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the C-17 transition to post production, which will provide for orderly transfer of C-17 production assets. The location of the performance is Long Beach, Calif. Work is to be completed by July 5, 2022. ASC/WLMK, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA8614-12-D-2049, Order 0001).
Hickey translates from DoD-ese:
The Department of Defense decided that they’re probably not going to need too many more of Boeing’s C-17 jets. So to make sure that the transition from “making C-17s” to “not making C-17s” goes as smoothly as possible, they awarded Boeing a half-billion dollar contract. The production facility in Long Beach California will likely have to have some changes, and Boeing is likely still responsible for parts, maintenance, and upkeep of the C-17 fleet for a while. Still, that’s a heck of a severance package.
This is how military contracting works. You get paid to make something, you get paid to stop making things. You get paid if you deliver, you get paid if you don’t deliver. You get paid while your things are used, and then you get paid when they stop being used. Generally speaking, you’re going to get paid.
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