Can’t order off the shelf - has to be bespoke….
I can understand Boeing playing hardball, they’ve lost a fortune on all their recent fixed price contracts, and this is a sellers’ market…..
https://www.defensenews.com/air/2024...-negotiations/
Tricky E-7 adaptations complicate U.S. Air Force, Boeing negotiations
DENVER, Colo. — The Air Force’s desired adaptations to
Boeing’s E-7A battlefield management aircraft are proving to be harderthan expected and complicating price negotiations, top service officials said Tuesday.
“We’re having a hard time with
[the E-7 program], getting price agreement with Boeing,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters in a roundtable at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here. “We’re still in negotiations with them, and that’s not been finalized yet.”…..
Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in another roundtable the sticky negotiations center on the E-7′s first two rapid prototype aircraft.
The level of engineering work needed to adapt the E-7 to the Air Force’s specifications was “above and beyond what we anticipated,” Hunter said.
“The big surprise there was an unexpected amount and degree of non-recurring engineering required to meet the requirement that the Air Force specified, which we thought was very close to what the U.K. is currently procuring from Boeing,” Hunter said. “Those discussions have been challenging.”….