Pentagon kills Boeing Future Combat Systems program

Wow the hits keep comming to boeing, 787 delays, Sea launch bankrupcy, and now this one

The Pentagon said this week that it is killing the world’s largest land warfare weapons program, which was headed by Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems.

Boeing will now compete with other companies to manage the successor programs to the Future Combat Systems Brigade Combat Team, a $160 billion Army modernization program, the U.S. Department of Defense said.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had expressed concern about the program fielding new combat vehicles that “did not adequately reflect the lessons of counterinsurgency and close quarters combat in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the defense department said.

Gates was “further troubled by the terms of the current single contract covering the whole FCS effort,” the department said.
www.bizjournals.com...

ok ive got 2 theories that i wanna combine into this

1) the FCS went black and are now being implemented secretly

2) this is a goal to "nationalize" Boeing? weird stuff... i hope they dont ruin Boeing too ...sigh

haha i said "nationalize" i meant corporate take over

the US .gov is a corporation...so this can quickly lead to a "hostile take over" if Uncle Sam decides to buy all the stock after it crashes

[edit on 26-6-2009 by muzzleflash]

on that note, if I personally had any stock in Boeing, id be taking it out RIGHT NOW

oh man i bet tons of normal people own BA investments

its gonna be a real nightmare on wall street, for anyone who does not pull out now

theres nothing to lose by getting out, but there will for sure be something to lose staying in

(Disclaimer : Im not an economist - but then again i bet you do not trust economists anyway)

buy Oil, its cheap. still only 70$ a barrel for crude
dirt cheap
everyone knows it will only go back up

BA stock is 42.53 right now, lets see where it is in a week and see if im a sucker or not

[edit on 26-6-2009 by muzzleflash]

It just blows my mind that our military continues to spend ridiculous amounts of money while our economy is tanking. I truly understand that as a super power, we need to remain the elite, but doesn't there come a time when someone needs to put their foot down and say, "Listen Moe-Foe's, enough is enough!"

Wasn't Reagan's SDI program had an estimated value of $260B? I realize that was 30 years ago, but give me a break!

Originally posted by Quazze


Wasn't Reagan's SDI program had an estimated value of $260B? I realize that was 30 years ago, but give me a break!

I will wager that it was even more than that, after we count black budgets. Also, I am a firm believer that Star Wars SDI was a complete success, but they decided to hide the truth from the public and other nations because "Space Weapons are bad!"

They are only as bad as they are expensive. Sorry for the OT post.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Not sure about going black. You can do that with an aircraft or say ship but its alot harder to do so with a system that was suposed to be the backbone of the Army for the future.

Originally posted by FredT
"Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had expressed concern about the program fielding new combat vehicles that “did not adequately reflect the lessons of counterinsurgency and close quarters combat in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the defense department said."

Wow. This guy just wont give up. Maybe next he can tell the Navy submarines do "not adequately reflect the lessons of counterinsurgency and close quarters combat in Iraq and Afghanistan". However, small rubber boats do.

I just saw a news report on Fox about the first deployed landwarrior systems in use in Iraq and Afghansitan. They are deployed with Stryker brigades. Wonder if Gates is gonna order thier toys taken away?

Frankly it was all a bit much. Was that the system where everybody was going to have "exoskeletons" and "liquid armor" and all that nonsense?

They should be spending their money on more practical stuff, like body armor that stops bullets without hindering mobility, gear that doesn't weigh 80 lbs, and guns that actually work without being cleaned every half hour.