Aerospace & Defense
13 articles
- Can 3D Printed Solid Rocket Motors Reach Full Rate in 2027?
Leidos picked X-Bow Systems to build booster motors for the Army's Low-Cost Containerized Munition. Additive propellant production can compress mix, cast and cure, but qualification, static fires and a thin sub-tier still set the 2027 clock.
Oct 17, 2026
- What Navy Submarine Work Demands From a Machine Shop
Anduril's Baltimore County yard won't open until 2030, and July's Navy submarine awards are the stronger demand signal today. This checklist is for shops weighing submarine work: traceability, weld and NDT qualifications, CUI controls, sponsorship and capacity.
Oct 13, 2026
- Will Boeing's Engineer Offer Reset Pay at Aerospace Suppliers?
Boeing's revised SPEEA offer guarantees a 10% raise on Oct. 2 if ratified, and 26% guaranteed over four years. Suppliers competing for the same engineers should plan around that guaranteed floor, not the 34% headline.
Sep 27, 2026
- If Boeing Engineers Strike, Who Signs Off on Supplier Deviations?
SPEEA members authorized a strike on Aug. 21, and Boeing's final offer was reported Sept. 12. The contracts expire Oct. 6, so Oct. 7 is the earliest date a walkout could begin. Here is which supplier dispositions still need a Boeing signature, which quality clocks keep running, and what to close out before Oct. 6.
Sep 13, 2026
- The Strongest Machine-Tool Half in 28 Years — and Aerospace, Not Detroit, Is Signing the POs
U.S. manufacturing technology orders hit $3.44 billion in the first half of 2026, the largest half-year since the USMTO series began in 1998 — on 2.6% fewer machines than the prior six months. The record was bought with capability, not count, and aerospace and power generation are signing the purchase orders.
Aug 30, 2026
- Boeing Is Studying 70 Jets a Month. Its New Line Builds One.
Boeing's $1 billion North Line in Everett is turning out roughly one 737 MAX 10 a month while the company studies a production rate of 70. Between those two numbers sits a supply base being asked to fund step-function capacity against a signal that has moved in both directions twice in eight years.
Aug 25, 2026
- The Pentagon Is Printing Propellant — Just Not Where the Bottleneck Is
X-Bow says it has passed 1,100 solid rocket motors built with printed propellant, and the Department of War has now routed $191M in DPA Title III funds into the solid rocket motor base across nine awards since December 2024. But most of that money buys cases, nozzles and insulation — not printed grains — and none of it prints ammonium perchlorate, which still has one qualified U.S. producer.
Aug 16, 2026
- A Korean-Owned Yard Wants to Go From 2 Ships a Year to 20 — and It Just Won Another $1.5B in Federal Ship Orders
Hanwha bought Philly Shipyard for $100M and is spending $5B to lift output roughly tenfold. A new ~$1.5B order lands in July 2026 — but it comes from MARAD, not the Navy. The real question for operators: can a Korean owner transplant a productivity system U.S. yards haven't matched in 40 years?
Jul 21, 2026
- The Navy Wants 450 Ships and Only 10% of the Work Is Distributed: Inside the $47B Push to Turn 291 Hulls Into a Supply-Chain Problem
The FY2026 shipbuilding budget is the largest since the Cold War at ~$47.4B, but the real operations story is structural: the Navy wants to shift construction from a handful of prime yards to a distributed base of smaller fabricators and module suppliers — and Wall Street is now writing checks to build it.
Jul 20, 2026
- JetZero Just Broke Ground on a Factory Twice the Size of Boeing Everett — to Build a Plane Shape the Industry Abandoned 70 Years Ago
A pre-revenue startup is pouring 8 million square feet of final-assembly space in Greensboro to industrialize a blended-wing-body airliner. The aerodynamics are settled; the open question is whether JetZero can stand up a clean-sheet widebody supply chain and rate-tooling from zero on a 2027-to-early-2030s timeline.
Jun 29, 2026
- Anduril's Arsenal-1 in Pickaway County Is About to Out-Hire Every Defense Prime in Ohio
Anduril started Fury drone production at its 5-million-square-foot Pickaway County mega-factory four months ahead of schedule, financing the buildout off venture capital rather than a signed program of record — and pulling directly on the same skilled-labor pool Boeing, Honeywell, and the Army's Lima tank plant already compete for.
Jun 10, 2026
- Northrop's B-21 Line at Palmdale Is Out-Hiring Boeing Commercial — and the Machinist Pipeline Can't Keep Up
Northrop's B-21 Raider line at Air Force Plant 42 has crossed from low-rate initial production into a 25% capacity expansion. The binding constraint is no longer tooling or budget — it's cleared, hands-on machinists, and Boeing's commercial ramp is hiring from the same Antelope Valley labor pool.
Jun 9, 2026
- Arsenal-1 Hits First Production Article — Anduril Becomes Central Ohio's Defense Manufacturing Anchor
Anduril rolled the first Fury (YFQ-44A) off its 866,000-square-foot Building 1 in Pickaway County in March 2026, three months ahead of schedule — turning a Silicon Valley prime's industrial bet into the de facto anchor of a Columbus-corridor defense manufacturing cluster.
May 6, 2026