Contesting the Obama Administration's planned termination of the C-17 program, California's Democratic U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer recently announced her support for continuing the plane's production. The plane is assembled at the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems plant in Long Beach and locally employs more than 5,000 people. conservative Republican Congressman Ed Royce, not usually on the same side of issues with liberal Democratic Senator Boxer, also expressed his support for continuing the C-17 program.

During an informal discussion with your Editors over the weekend, U.S. Congressman Ed Royce , 40th District Of California, which includes Rossmoor and Los Alamitos, expressed his concern about the losses we would incur by ending the C-17 program. With regard to the proposed termination of the program after the 205th plane is delivered, Royce said "That would be a bad strategy." Royce explained that if we do not continue production of the C-17, we could loose the technology advantage we have and risk giving up this type of manufacturing work to Europe. The C-17 is the only remaining large military airplane currently being manufactured in the US. U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican, 46th Congressional District of California, which includes Seal Beach, also has expressed his support for continuing the C-17 program.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is the larges local employer and the C-17 program pumps billions of dollars into the local economy. At a speech on April 6, President Obama's Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said "With regard to air lift, we will complete production of the C-17 airlifter program this fiscal year. Our analysis concludes that we have enough C-17s with the 205 already in the force and currently in production. According to Jerry Drelling, Boeing spokesperson, unless additional orders are received, the Long Beach production line will be shuttered in January 2011.

Because of the major significance of the C-17 program to our local economy and the possible termination of the program, your Editors plan to publish a series of articles devoted to this subject. The large response we had to our C-17 article, published on 3/28/09, indicates that we have considerable reader interest in the C-17 program. If you have concerns, questions, or comments regarding the C-17, please send us an e mail, or leave a comment on the site.