Boeing Co. expects to triple its supply of Patriot missile seekers due to high demand for the air defense system, Bloomberg reports, writes UNN.
Details
The company has built a 40,000-square-foot production facility to ramp up output, Steve Parker, head of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said Monday at the Dubai Airshow.
We saw the demand long before the customer came to us. We will be asked to expand production, and we will be ready.
Air and missile defense systems are considered critical to the defense efforts of many countries, especially in Europe, amid the threat of aggression from Russia.
Following a recent strike by Boeing workers in St. Louis, Missouri, the company is now taking a "very cautious approach" to restarting lines that were shut down due to the strike, Parker added.
During a media briefing in Dubai on Sunday, Parker said that the remote vision system for the KC-46 tanker — which had previously caused problems for some operators — had been upgraded to version 2.0 and had passed flight tests. The U.S. Air Force said this year that the upgrade would likely be operational in 2027, and Boeing confirmed that the timeline remains in place.