Report: Boeing Plans to focus on UAVs and Bombers in Fighterless Future

Boeing X45B UCAV

L-RSB Concept

Boeing Faces a Future Without Fighter Jets - WSJ

The steadfast commitment of the U.S. and many allies to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program made by Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT +0.65% is drying up funding for Boeing's fighters. Now, the head of Boeing's defense unit is preparing a road map that would concede the fighter market to Lockheed and pin the business's future on other aircraft, including military versions of its commercial jetliners.

Report: Boeing Plans for Post-Fighter Future | DoD Buzz

Boeing Co. is planning for an era in which it no longer builds fighter jets, according to a news report.

The shift comes despite the Navy’s ongoing use of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet to strike Islamic militants in Iraq and the company’s ongoing lobbying campaign to persuade U.S. lawmakers to preserve funding for the fighter planes, both of which are built at its St. Louis plant.

Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing’s defense, space and security unit, in October will begin implementing a business strategy that instead focuses on capturing more of the drone, bomber and trainer market, according to the article. “You have to face reality,” he told the newspaper.

Boeing shifts focus off fighter jets - St. Louis Business Journal

Boeing Begins Rolling Out New Business Strategy | Defense News | defensenews.com

Chadwick started rolling out a new strategy last week that he hopes will transform Boeing and win major competitions like the US Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber (L-RSB) program, in partnership with Lockheed Martin; the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS); and the Air Force T-X future trainer effort. The strategy itself will be formally unveiled next month. 

U.S. aims to pick one team to build new U.S. bomber next year | Reuters

Chris Chadwick, president and chief executive of Boeing Co's $33 billion Defense, Space and Security division, told the conference on Wednesday that his company was working closely on its bid with Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's biggest supplier.
Chadwick said Boeing decided to team up with Lockheed so the two companies could benefit from various technologies developed for other weapons programs and avoid "reinventing" things that had already been accomplished.

Boeing is “very close” to competitive UCLASS design - 6/11/2012 - Flight Global

Boeing is "very close" to having what it considers to be a competitive design for the US Navy's unmanned carrier launched surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft programme, a top company official says.
The USN has not yet issued a request for proposal, but Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing's military aircraft division, says the company has a good idea of what the service's requirements might be. He says Boeing expects a solicitation later this summer.
Chadwick says the Boeing has learned from its X-45C/Phantom Ray design and from F/A-18 unmanned demonstration efforts.
"It's not a warmed-over X-45, but it has really learned from the X-45 and X-47 and the other unmanned products that we have," he says.