California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has petitioned President Bush to add money to the Pentagon’s 2008 budget for additional C-17s. In a letter dated Tuesday, California’s top executive noted that the closure of Boeing’s Long Beach production facility would mean the loss of nearly 11,000 jobs—about half at the plant and half at suppliers around the state. Boeing has said that today is the day it must make a decision to begin shutting down the production line.
The Air Force overall reduced its size by 120 aircraft in fiscal year 2021, but kept about the same number of fighter, bomber and attack aircraft, according to data supplied by the service. The F-35 fleet saw the biggest increase while the B-1B bomber fleet saw the largest decline.