Boeing Goes a la Carte on C-17B

Boeing has proposed a whole series of upgrades to create a C-17B, in a desperate attempt to keep the line open, and they are going to offer them on an individual basis.

The upgrades are:

• Upgraded engines.
• Doubled slotted flaps.
• Additional tires on the main landing gear.
• A central tire inflation system.
• Improved avionics.
• An electronic warefare system.

They are offering them individually for two reasons, some of them could also be sold as simple upgrades to the existing fleet, and because all together, they might be considered a new development program, which means that the groundlings at the Pentagon would have to spend a few years writing up specifications.

At its core, of course, this effort is really about keeping the line open as quietly as possible.