The New Air Force One's Losses Now More Than US$2 billion

[PeterRS]

Boeing was no doubt thrilled that it would get the contract to build the replacement for the US President's Air Force 1 747-200 aircraft. Well, actually, it's two aircraft, one the mirror image of the other. The new ones will be modified versions of the last of the 747 line - the 800 series with the additional extension to the upper deck.

Normally with military projects, the Air Force would be charged on a cost basis plus an agreed profit margin. Thanks to Donald Trump's intervention (I suppose we can at least thank him for one positive decision), he objected to the extimated cost of $4 billion per plane. As a result Boeing agreed to reduce the price to that from the Government Accountability Office of $3.2 billion.

Now the company is ruing its obeissance to the President-elect. Cost overruns mount year after year. This year $482 million was added to the loss, bringing the total to more than $2 billion. As Boeing's CEO Dave Calhoun stated last year, "A very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn't have taken."

Boeing is still reporting losses on its commercial businesses - in all but two quarters since early 2019.  Last week, it was another $1.1 billion, worse than that predicted by analysts. It still pins its short-term hopes on the 737 Max and the 787 with the much-hyped 777X still further delayed. With design started in 2011, Lufthansa became the first alrline to place an order for the 777X: for 34 of the aircraft. By 2019 it had reduced its commitment to just 6 aircraft.  Commerical introduction was originally planned for  2019. That is now not expected until 2025 at the earliest.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/25/business/air-force-one-boeing-loss/index.html?dicbo=v2-ZNebZ1y&iid=ob_mobile_article_footer_expansion

[NIrishGuy]

As with all these things no doubt the final figures will be well and truly fudged to ensure that everyone both saves face AND ends up with a nice healthy profit into the bargain.

No doubt a bill of £3.2 billion WILL be presented and paid so the Government can show how hard they had negotiated with their supplier - and then a month or two after that a few quiet bills for "the supply of napkins" or "supply of replacement carpet as ordered" or " repainting of edgings" or some other bullshit bills will be quietly presented and processed for another Billion or two here or there !

They must think we the public don't KNOW their crafty games.  

[PeterRS]

 

Solid gold toilets and beluga caviar on tap 🤣

[Marc in Calif]

3 hours ago, NIrishGuy said:

No doubt a bill of £3.2 billion WILL be presented and paid so the Government can show how hard they had negotiated with their supplier....

Well, quite a bit less than that actually. This is the U.S. government, and the amount is in U.S. dollars.

[NIrishGuy]

28 minutes ago, Marc in Calif said:

Well, quite a bit less than that actually. This is the U.S. government, and the amount is in U.S. dollars.

Yep, ok, I think you can safely assume that £ rather than a $ was a simple error on my part as we were talking about Air Force One of course. 

[forky123]

9 minutes ago, NIrishGuy said:

Yep, ok, I think you can safely assume that £ rather than a $ was a simple error on my part as we were talking about Air Force One of course. 

We could have been convinced Mexico was going to pay for it and it was Peso

[NIrishGuy]

23 minutes ago, forky123 said:

We could have been convinced Mexico was going to pay for it and it was Peso

Yeah they might  - right after they've finished paying for the wall !!!   Oh no wait.....funny how that all seemed to just quietly disappear eh and all you hear is Trump shouting about what a great deal he got for the plane, but strangely the wall is never mentioned anymore.

 

[vinapu]

10 hours ago, NIrishGuy said:

Yep, ok, I think you can safely assume that £ rather than a $ was a simple error on my part as we were talking about Air Force One of course. 

I thought you are projecting pound to be at par with dollar very soon

[reader]

12 hours ago, NIrishGuy said:

….but strangely the wall is never mentioned anymore.

Not quite, unfortunately.

(3 days ago) Biden administration waives protection laws to build border wall 

Conservationists, Indigenous communities, and others are criticizing the Biden administration for waiving 26 federal protection laws to fast-track the construction of up to 20 miles of border wall along the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.

(2 days ago) Trump falsely claims he’d promised Mexico would pay for ‘a piece’ of the border wall

Former President Donald Trump attempted to rewrite history in a speech in Iowa on Sunday, falsely claiming he had campaigned for the presidency in 2016 on a promise that Mexico would pay for “a piece” of his border wall.

(1 day ago) Texas Senate allocated $1.54B to border wall

The Texas Senate approved $1.54 billion in additional funding to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border as well as increase law enforcement at the Colony Ridge development in Liberty County.

 

 

 

[PeterRS]

Although we're a bit off topic, since it has been raised I'd like to pose another question: how effective are border walls really for those determined to get to the other side?

The world is today witnessing the ghastly murders on both sides of the Israel border with Gaza. I have nowhere seen mentioned the fact that israel spent a great deal of money and warded off another batch of international criticism when it started work on its huge border wall. Already over 400 kms have been completed and work is underway on another 58 kms. As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, it is the most complex project israeli defence officials have ever built.

The 65 km section separating israel with Gaza is more of a massive iron fence, but it is equipped with cutting edge technology designed to detect any security breach. It also includes an underground barrier and is equipped with hundreds of cameras, radars and sensors. There are guard towers positioned at every 500 feet. Yet the Hamas terrorists still got through with relative ease. According to the Israel Defence Forces, the wall was breached in no less than 29 places.

If the state of Israel, always on the front foot when it comes to defending its security, cannot build a secure wall, how effective or therwise is one between the USA and Mexico likely to be?

[reader]

Walls are historically built primarily to control borders as was objective in China in 221 BC.

56 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

….how effective or therwise is one between the USA and Mexico likely to be?

Regarding those sections of wall between the United States and Mexico, we need only look to the recent past for the answer.

The wall has delayed but in most cases not deterred those seeking to gain entrance without prior approval to enter.

The more compelling question centers on the prevailing rules governing asylum. Between 1990 and 2021, the US admitted 767,950 asylum seekers into the country.