America's Hottest Export: Weapons  

Oleh:

Kimes, Mina

Jenis: Article from Bulletin/Magazine
Dalam koleksi: Fortune vol. 163 no. 3 (Feb. 2011), page 44-55.
Topik: Boeing's F-15; Soviet MiGs; St. Louis International Airport; Arms sales; Weapons.
Fulltext: America's Hottest Export Weapons.pdf (67.89KB)

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Perpustakaan Pusat (Semanggi) Nomor Panggil: FF16.45 Non-tandon: 1 (dapat dipinjam: 0) Tandon: tidak ada

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This time last year, Boeing's F-15 production line, which is housed in a beige, dreary building on the outskirts of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, was on the verge of shutting down. The F-15 is an old jet, first designed in the 1970s to out-maneuver Soviet MiGs. It has long been surpassed by more advanced rivals, and the U.S. military hasn't bought a new one since 2001. When production slowed to a trickle a few years ago, a pair of orders from Korea and Singapore kept the line alive, barely, and it has been churning out about one F-15 a month since then. Local politicians fret¬ted that Boeing would have to close the production line, eliminating hundreds of jobs and delivering a blow to the struggling regional economy. Then, last summer, rumors surfaced about a deal—a big one. The workers at the plant followed the news online, where defense publications reported on the details of the sale. The would-be buyer, they learned, was Saudi Arabia, and the proposed order was massive—84 planes, as well as upgrades to older jets. In October the Department of Defense, which administers sales to foreign countries, finally announced an arms package worth some $60 billion, including 70 Apache attack helicopters, also made by Boeing, and the fleet of F-15s. It was the biggest overseas arms sale in recent memory, and it extended the life of the production line through 2018. The F-15 may live even longer—a Boeing executive says there are two other overseas buyers waiting in the wings. Dale Lauer, a 52-year-old flight mechanic, smiled slightly when I asked him what he thought about the news. "People thought this program was dead a long time ago."

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