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LOCATIONS
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13 Dec 16. Leadership of Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security (BDS) unit will be leaving St. Louis, Missouri, for the Washington, DC, area at the start of 2017, although the vast majority of St. Louis employees will be staying at their current location. BDS has been based in St. Louis since it merged with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, whose corporate legacy in the region goes back to the late 1930s. The initial shift will consist of about a dozen individuals from the senior leadership team, most notably BDS head Leanne Caret. Over time, another 50 or so individuals will move from St. Louis to the capital region — technically Northern Virginia, but just a stone’s throw away from both the line to DC and the Pentagon. The news was first reported by Defense One and confirmed to Defense News by Boeing spokesman Todd Blecher.
“It’s a very clear reflection of how Leanne operates,” Blecher said when asked the reason for the move. “She is all about personal engagement whenever that is possible with senior leaders of the customer, whether in the Pentagon, in NASA, folks on the Hill, however you define customers and decision-makers. So this allows her to be that much closer to those people.”
Blecher said he understood that the initial reaction to the announcement would be negative in the St. Louis community, which for years has lived under questions about Boeing’s future in the region, given questions about F-15 and F/A-18 production timelines.
However, he noted that about 14,000 jobs will remain in St. Louis versus the less than 70 that would be moving to DC, and compared the situation to when Boeing’s corporate headquarters moved from Seattle to Chicago, noting the Seattle location now has more employees than it did at the time of the Chicago move.
“We certainly understand and are respectful of the surprise that people in the St. Louis area will have, but all I can do is reassure them with the facts, that the company’s commitment to that community is vibrant today and will be strong and vibrant years from now,” Blecher said.
Speaking to Defense News at the Reagan National Defense Conference on Dec. 3, Caret expressed confidence that the F/A-18 line would expand out “well into the mid-2020s and beyond. … I feel very comfortable with where we are with this line.”
It has been a year of corporate shifting for BDS, starting with the surprise decision to replace BDS head Chris Chadwick with Caret in March. Then in November, the company announced it would be closing several sites and eliminating 500 jobs over the four-year period.
Boeing has also announced it would be standing up a Global Services unit, based in Dallas, Texas, which would handle a mix of commercial and defense-related maintenance and upgrade work. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
09 Dec 16. FSB-Pond JV to design $250m hangar for future ‘Air Force One’ aircraft. The Frankfurt Short Bruza Associates(FSB)-Pond joint venture (JV) has received a contract from the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Washington to design a hangar for the future Air Force One aircraft. The $250m Presidential Aircraft Recapitalisation (PAR) Complex will host the proposed Boeing 747-8, which will be modified to fit the US Air Force’s (USAF) requirements. Powered by four engines, the wide-bodied commercial aircraft will be used for carrying US President.
Under the contract, the company will provide architectural and engineering services for the PAR Complex. FSB will provide architect and engineer of record services for the aviation facility, while Pond will provide engineer of record services for all site, infrastructure and fuelling system