Boeing's defense business is proving harder to turn around than executives initially predicted, with supplier errors and high manufacturing costs contributing to $1.7 billion in losses this year on programs like the next Air Force One and NASA's Starliner capsule. Despite absorbing $4.4 billion in losses in 2022 – which executives said would lower the risk of future cost overruns – the unit has seen little improvement this year. Excluding last year, losses on Boeing's defense programs in 2023 exceed those from all years since 2014, according to a Reuters review of Boeing’s regulatory filings.
"This is a broad and in a way campaign-like approach to strengthening our own supply chain and enabling multiple sources, really for even beyond our company for our industry, which I think is important," Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet said of his firm's endeavor to field a new solid rocket motor supplier.