By Ann Roosevelt
The Oct. 1 realignment of Boeing Military Aircraft that moved H-47 programs into a Mobility division positions the multi-mission heavy lift helicopter for growth in the current business environment and into the future.
“It’s a huge opportunity for us,” Leanne Caret, vice president of H-47 Programs at Boeing Defense Space & Security/Mobility division, told Defense Daily at the Association of the United States Army annual conference in Washington, D.C.
The new Mobility division incorporates aircraft from the C-17 Globemaster III and the KC-767 international tanker to the CH-47F, the MH-47G and the V-22 Osprey.
Caret said leveraging company abilities has always been fruitful, even before the reorganization. For example, Boeing [BA] works with Finmeccanica‘s AgustaWestland under an industrial agreement, building the ICH-47F for the Italian army. The Boeing team was able to incorporate some lessons learned from its international tanker program for its work on that Italian Chinook.
Now, as part of the Mobility group, it’s a “more natural” effort to leverage resources across fixed wing and rotary aircraft involved with lift, she said.
Commonalities could be anything from avionics, communication gear, or even production practices.
On a monthly basis, Caret and the vice presidents of the other programs in the business group meet and review programs, all aimed at making programs more efficient.
The realignment has made it easier to have access to and leverage capabilities and technologies, Caret said, even though reaching out across the company was commonly done in the past.
The H-47 program keeps track of what it’s leveraging as well, she said.
For example, the “cost reduction initiative” measures the replication of good ideas for H-47 from other programs, so Caret has a clear idea of what’s being done.
In fact, Caret wants Chinook to become the “poster child” within the Boeing enterprise for such work.
The way forward for Chinook isn’t all about saving, it’s also about investing. At a briefing earlier in the day, Caret said. Boeing has invested $130 million in upgrades that will result in state-of-the-art facilities. To keep up with the strong interest, Boeing added more than 300 employees, and invested in its own internal research and development to enhance system performance and improve production processes.
However, all the cost savings, efficiencies and capabilities at Boeing defense “are ultimately aimed at a common outcome: better products for the warfighter,” Caret said.