As he went down each program on Boeing’s various strike and airlift programs, Darryl Davis, head of the company’s advanced precision engagement and mobility systems, usually concluded with a comment that funding is uncertain. “Based on what we hear … about bills being flowed to the services,” Davis told reporters this morning at AFA’s Washington conference that “it will cut into R&D” in the future years spending plan. “It does not sound good” for aggressive development of new systems, he acknowledged.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.