If we worry about America’s loss of manufacturing, the Fortune (Feb.28,2011) cover story today will bring some comfort. The magazine cover pictures a US-made missile for 
sale –and the article begins thus: “This time last year, Boeing’s F-15 production line, which is housed in a beige, dreary building on the outskirts of Lambert- St. Louis Int’l Airport, was on the verge of shutting down”.
This really caught my attention as I had earlier worked in that very same dreary building on the F-4 design team! The really good engineers were in a locked room I could never enter, as they were working on the F-15 in total secrecy. The F-15 was a true power in its heyday. But the US stopped buying the plane a decade ago and production was down to one F-15 a month and due to close. This would have cost 100’s of manufacturing jobs during an already bad economy.
Then up stepped Saudi Arabia, with a $60 billion arms package a few months ago that included 84 F-15s. The deal means the production line stays open til at least 2018. DOD’s plan to sell $103 billion in weapons overseas this year is a staggering rise from an average of $13 billion between 1995 and 2005….and is rescuing American manufacturing and exports in a big way.
Also in the news: a $4 billion plane deal with India in 2011 (in addition to $2.1 billion in 2009) and a shot at a $10 billion sale of 126 jet fighters. Egypt bought $2 billion in weapons in 2009 and Jordan $431 million. (You might be wondering what happens to those arms when regimes are overthrown–the State Dept. certainly does). WikiLeaks just confirmed what most already know: American diplomats are pitchmen for the US-made arms industry, a major source of high-paying, highly skilled manufacturing jobs.
Discussion questions:
1. Why is the arms industry so important and who are our major competitors?
2. What do companies typically have to do to get major contracts abroad?
3. Is it fair to say,”As Boeing goes, so goes the country”?