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Boeing jets to get costlier if foreign sales slump: US Navy

A US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet prepares to launch from the flight deck on board the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. (AFP photo)

The US Navy has warned that the cost of buying new Boeing aircraft is slated to rise unless the government approves more foreign sales.

US Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the government-imposed delays on the sale of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter jets to a close US ally is frustrating and could drive higher the projected cost of jets the US Navy plans to procure, the Reuters reported Sunday.

The Navy has supported a $3 billion contract with Kuwait to sell the Arab kingdom 28 Super Hornets, but the contract has been stalled for nearly a year, waiting approval from the White House.

According Mabus, the delay affects Navy’s budget plans as Congress is expected to approve funding for as many as 16 Boeing F/A-18 jets for fiscal 2017, giving Boeing less than the two-jet minimum it needs for economical production. The gap would have been filled with the Kuwaiti order.

“I'm frustrated. A lot of people are frustrated,” Mabus said. “The process is too long, too onerous in terms of getting weapons systems to our friends and to our allies.”

The US Navy has put in orders for two F-18s in its fiscal 2017 budget, and plans to buy 14 more as part of its "unfunded priorities list."

"The line wouldn’t be operating as well as it should, and the price probably would go up for us because there aren't as many planes coming through," the secretary said.

The Navy is likely to continue buying Super Hornets in 2018 and the coming years until the much-troubled fifth generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighters arrive.

Under development since 2001, the mostly software-driven stealth jet is not likely to debut for another two years.

The secretary’s remarks were welcomed by Boeing, with the company’s spokeswoman Caroline Hutcheson saying that “production rate of two per month” was necessary “to keep prices optimal.”

The US Navy’s Super Hornets have been the center of attention over the past weeks after three of them crashed in 2 separate incidents.

In early June, the US Navy lost one of its Blue Angels pilots after his F/A-18 jet crashed in Smyrna, about 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Nashville.

Two other US Navy F/A-18 jets crashed in late May, after an “in-air mishap” which led to their collision during a routine training mission.


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