Pentagon envisions end of the C-17

Published: Feb 04, 2006
Source: www.dailybreeze.com



WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon defense review Friday forecast shutting down C-17 production after the completion of the 180 planes planned, despite congressional objections to such a move when it became public several months ago.

The C-17 is the primary aircraft used to carry troops to the battlefield and is made by Boeing Co. at a Long Beach plant that employs more than 6,000 workers.


It's the last military plane to be built by the once-thriving Southern California aerospace industry.

The Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review, required by Congress every four years, says the department will complete the existing C-17 contract while considering acquiring a proposed new tanker aircraft and modernizing another transport plane, the larger C-5.

With the last of the 180 C-17s scheduled for delivery in 2008, production would start to wind down relatively soon.continue..