Former Air Force Chief of Staff Joins Northrop

Dodbuzz

The revolving door of retired military generals headed to defense contractors continues to spin. The U.S. Air Force‘s former chief of staff, retired Gen. Mark Welsh, has joined the board of directors for Northrop Grumman Corp., the company announced Thursday. The move comes just five months after Welsh retired as the service’s top uniformed officer and a little more than a year after Northrop won the biggest Pentagon contract in decades — to begin developing the B-21 Raider as part of the potentially $80 billion Long Range Strike Bomber, or LRSB, program. “His extensive leadership experience and deep understanding of global security are a great fit to our board, and we are excited about the contributions he will make as Northrop Grumman employees around the globe work to create value for our customers and shareholders,” Wes Bush, the company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. Welsh, currently the dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, served as the Air Force’s chief of staff from 2012 until this summer. He’ll be the 14th member of Northrop’s board, joining 13 independent directors, the company said. The release didn’t specify how much Welsh will be paid. Of Northrop’s 12 board members who received compensation in 2015, the average amount was $260,621, with a minimum of $102,916 and a maximum of $314,142, according to the proxy statement accompanying the company’s annual report. During his time on the joint staff, Welsh advocated for new aircraft to modernize the Air Force’s aging fleet. “The platforms and systems that made us great over the last 50 years will not make us great over the next 50,” he said during Feb. 10 testimony before lawmakers. “There are many other systems we need to either upgrade or recapitalize to ensure viability against current and emerging threats … the only way to do that is to divest old capability to build the new.” Around that time, the service unveiled its first prototype design graphic of the B-21. Northrop in October 2015 beat out Boeing Co., the world’s largest aerospace company, and Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor, for the $21.4 billion initial contract as part of the LRSB program. The Air Force plans to buy 100 of the new bombers from Northrop Grumman, which manufactured the B-2 Spirit, to replace its fleet of B-52 Stratofortresses and a portion of its fleet of B-1 Lancers. Not many details have been shared about the B-21. And the Air Force’s photos of the Raider mock-up have critics grumbling that the future bomber closely resembles the B-2.

Now first off, having worked on the Buff, there absolutely needs to be a replacement... no soubt about it.

BUT... this is a perfect example of the rampant corruption in the Pentagon, I have to wonder looking at this how many weapon systems have we wasted billions upon billions of dollars on so some general can get a sweet heart gig after they retire.

His salary is fricking peanuts compared to what the company will make over the life time of the contract, you want to fix DoD's bloated budget this is a grand place to start...

Maybe if we flat out make it illegal for Military personnel (that were in the contract deciding portion of the process) to hold positions with an agency they advocated for while serving we might see an end to some of the bloat and back room dealing.

I am not saying Northrup has a bad design, I have no idea about the design... but if it happens with a spot lighted program, how many other systems do the tax payer foot the bill for, that maybe the Military does not need.

Chance of corruption and bad deals is to high, we are stretched to thin financially steps need to be taken to prevent cronyism...

Liberals out there, when you yell at your congress person about the defense budget point out issues like this... give them a direction to go otherwise you just get cuts at the boot on the ground level not where the big money is wasted.

Piss on it... dont care if its morning I need some whiskey.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Not going to happen any time soon I'm afraid, one of the best indoctrinations that human history has seen is the idolising of the 'warrior' not the 'peace-bringer'.



The world has fallen for the most tragic ruse ever, that fighting is honorable and 'noble'. It isn't.

The buzzword of the century is "emerging threats". This could mean literally anything, anything at all.

a reply to: Irishhaf


Totally agree. The platform IS needed. Yet, at the very least, this is bad form. Unbelievable arrogance and, IMO, utter stupidity on NG's part.


Trump has already fired warning shots over the 'bows' of Boeing and LM. In both cases, this has produced an immediate drop in their respective share values. Both CEOs have 'bent knee' and 'kissed the ring' of the new reality. Trump will now have to add NG to the list and you can bet it will be more significant than the first shots fired at the other two.


Bottom line? A dumb move when change is so obviously a likely potential.