If a Kansas congressman is correct, Boeing will soon announce it will make military modifications to its new 767 Air Force tanker in Washington rather than in Wichita.
U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo told reporters in Kansas’ largest city that an unnamed Boeing executive told him privately that the KC-46A tanker conversion work will be done in Washington.
Boeing had no immediate comment on the report. The company has told employees and civic officials in Wichita that it is studying what to do with its plant in Wichita. That plant now handles military maintenance and modification work.
One of the alternatives being studied is shutting the plant down and transferring work there to other locations. Boeing says coming cutbacks in the military budget are forcing it to consider plant closures and consolidations in its military division.
Besides the tanker modification work, the Wichita plant performs maintenance and upgrades on presidential and command and control aircraft.
Boeing has other sites where that work could be done, including San Antonio, Texas, and Oklahoma City.
Boeing had planned to build the basic 767 aircraft that serves as the basis for the KC-46A tanker on its commercial aircraft assembly line in Everett and then send the aircraft to Wichita for modification into a tanker.
Pompeo and other Kansas officials said that if the report of the tanker work’s transfer is correct, they were deceived by Boeing, which had sought Kansas congressional support when it was lobbying for the $38 billion contract to build the 179 tankers. Boeing then said the contract would create 7,500 jobs in Kansas.
If Boeing does close the Wichita defense plant, other work currently done there – including modification and engineering support of Air Force One and other government and military jets that are derivatives of Boeing 737s, 757s, and 747s, as well as the B-52 bomber fleet – would be dispersed to Boeing facilities around the U.S.
Bob Brewer, Midwest director of Boeing’s white-collar union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, said “a lot of people believe it’s a done deal.”
John Gillie: 253-597-8663 john.gillie@thenewstribune.com
The Seattle Times’ Dominic Gates contributed to this report.
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