Boeing’s Pentagon Takeover

BY LARA SELIGMAN

Patrick Shanahan, a former executive for the aerospace giant, is poised to take over for Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

Boeing's growing clout with U.S. President Donald Trump's Pentagon can no longer be ignored.

Trump announced Sunday morning on Twitter that he is forcing outgoing Defense Secretary James Mattis to leave earlier than expected, and he named Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, as acting secretary. Mattis, a retired Marine general, was slated to leave at the end of February. Shanahan will now take over on Jan. 1.

“Patrick has a long list of accomplishments while serving as Deputy, & previously Boeing. He will be great!” Trump tweeted.

Although Shanahan has not been formally tapped for secretary of defense, which requires Senate confirmation, sources say he is one of the White House's top picks for the job.

Shanahan's ascent is just the latest manifestation of the growing influence the world's largest aerospace company has in Trump's Pentagon. In the last six months, Boeing has wonthree multibillion-dollar competitions for major Department of Defense aircraft programs, despite massive delays in delivering a new tanker fleet to the U.S. Air Force.

Now, senior Pentagon leaders are forcing the Air Force to purchase a new version of Boeing's legacy F-15 fighter, a non-stealth jet that first flew in 1972, which will compete for the Air Force's limited resources with Lockheed Martin's new F-35 fighter jet.

The reportedly $1.2 billion proposal to buy the a dozen new variants of the “F-15X,” the same version of the aircraft Boeing is building for Qatar, reflects Boeing's outsize influence with senior leaders in the Trump administration, a phenomenon that dates back to the beginning of the president's term. As early as February 2017, Trump floated buying additional Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, instead of the F-35. The U.S. Navy placed an order for over 100 new Super Hornets this spring.

Trump also has a personal relationship with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg. The two men negotiated directly to reach a $3.9 billion deal for a new Air Force One presidential aircraft, which Trump claimed saves taxpayers $1.4 billion.

Certainly, Boeing has fought hard to offer the Pentagon its products at extremely competitive prices and allowed the department to boast considerable cost savings.

Boeing has adopted “an across-the-board aggressive posture in lobbying, pricing, and product development, largely due to fears that they were being eclipsed,” said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. In addition, “very strong profits from Boeing's commercial jetliner side ... permits more aggressive bids by the military side.”

Full article: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/23/boeing-pentagon-takeover-defense-department-mattis-shanahan