Boeing Defense, Space & Security

Boeing Defense, Space and Security is the military and government half of the Boeing Company, run as a distinct business with its own executive leadership based in Arlington, Virginia, even though production still runs out of St Louis, Philadelphia, Mesa, and other legacy sites around the country. In 2022 Boeing reorganized the unit into four divisions after a stretch of costly fixed price program overruns, and that structure still shapes how the business is described today: Vertical Lift, Mobility Surveillance and Bombers, Air Dominance, and Space Intelligence and Weapon Systems. Vertical Lift makes Boeing the largest military rotorcraft producer in the country. The AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopter have both been in continuous production for decades and remain in high demand from international customers, and the division also builds the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor jointly with Bell Textron, a program that combines helicopter and airplane flight modes for the Marine Corps and Air Force special operations.

Mobility, Surveillance and Bombers covers some of Boeing's highest profile recent wins and headaches in equal measure: the KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueling tanker, which has struggled with a troubled boom camera system but continues rolling off the line, the P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and submarine hunting aircraft, the E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning jet now being adopted by the US Air Force after years of Australian and UK service, and the VC-25B replacement presidential aircraft. The division also sustains the B-52 bomber fleet through ongoing modernization work. Air Dominance holds the fighter and unmanned combat business: the F-15EX Eagle II, a modernized version of a decades old airframe now being bought fresh by the Air Force, the F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler electronic attack jet for the Navy, the T-7A Red Hawk trainer developed with Saab to replace the aging T-38, and the MQ-25 Stingray carrier based refueling drone. This division also includes Boeing's classified programs and what remains of the Phantom Works advanced projects unit outside of space work, plus the MQ-28 Ghost Bat uncrewed aircraft developed for Australia.

Space, Intelligence and Weapon Systems runs Boeing's space exploration and launch business, including the Starliner crew capsule built for NASA's commercial crew program, core stage work on NASA's Space Launch System rocket, satellite manufacturing, and a fifty percent stake in United Launch Alliance, the Boeing Lockheed joint venture that flies the Atlas V and Vulcan rockets. The same division handles munitions and precision weapons programs. Financially, BDS has been the most troubled part of Boeing in recent years, posting large losses on fixed price development contracts even as legacy production programs kept revenue in the tens of billions of dollars annually. It remains, despite that, one of the handful of companies capable of fielding fighters, bombers, tankers, rotorcraft, and spacecraft under one roof, and its programs equip the majority of NATO and allied air forces in some form.