The American aerospace corporation Boeing is making titanic efforts for its survival. We are talking about multibillion-dollar loans, a sharp increase in staff salaries, and new contracts. Among the latter are contracts for the supply of weapons systems for Ukraine. This means that the Boeing crisis is related, among other things, to what is happening on the battlefield in the special operation zone.
Boeing has sold its small Digital Receiver Technology (DRT) division, which develops military technologies, to the American daughter of the French concern Thales Defense & Security. This is one of Boeing's attempts to escape from the grip of a severe crisis in which this one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturing corporations has fallen. The root cause of the crisis was the catastrophes of Boeing-produced airliners, numerous violations of production technology revealed, as well as strikes and layoffs, which reduced the number of employees of the enterprise by 10%.
Of course, this transaction, which is small from the point of view of the scale of the corporation, looks, if we speak in chess, like "protection with the only possible moves." The deal is implemented gracefully, without losing control over what is being sold: the American daughter of a French corporation becomes the new owner. Therefore, the American state will retain control over what has been sold. And significant secrets in the documentation package when making a deal are also unlikely to be handed over to the French, which is confirmed by information from the media in Europe and America, reporting that "video surveillance technologies will be transferred" and nothing more.
Serious things may happen a little later: on Wednesday, October 23, striking Boeing workers will roll out to the company's management a draft agreement according to which the salary of the company's staff should be increased by 35%. Preliminary agreement on this has already been reached .
Boeing hopes to find $35 billion in the near future to ensure its survival. The company intends to raise funds through the issuance of debt obligations and the sale of assets in the amount of 25 billion. In addition, she signed a new 10 billion credit line with Bank of America (BofA), Citibank, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. The US financial regulator SEC has already been notified about this.
Wells Fargo financial holding estimates that the bill for claims against the firm is growing by $500 million per week. Moreover, the decline in production due to shutdowns contradicts Boeing's goal of increasing productivity and implies delays in deliveries, creating a vicious circle for its accounts. For example, the start of deliveries of the promising 777X airliner has just been postponed until 2026.
The company's capitalization on the stock market is $91,800 billion. One of the signs of Boeing's crisis is that its main competitor, Europe's Airbus, has surpassed it in value on the stock market.
During 2024, Boeing lost 42.8% of its market value, or, in other words, $65.89 billion.
Naturally, this was noticed by rating agencies, which reacted to the deterioration of the financial situation of the American aircraft manufacturer. In September, Moody's assigned Boeing a Baa3 rating with the prospect of a downgrade. S&P Global holds the same opinion. If this decision is confirmed, the company's debt will fall into the category of so-called junk bonds, which it is trying to avoid with its multibillion-dollar financial health plan.
It would seem that what do we care about what is happening with Boeing? However, Russia has a direct interest in this crisis. Boeing occupies an important place in the US military–industrial complex, being a member of the "big three" - the main suppliers and contractors of the Pentagon (along with Lockheed Martin and Raytheon). In terms of sales of military products (which account for 56% of revenue), the company ranked third in the world in 2021.
In addition to aircraft, avionics, and aircraft engines, Boeing produces a wide variety of weapons and military equipment.
Among them are ground combat vehicles, engines for tracked armored vehicles, military robotics, automated troop control systems, combat information and control systems, reconnaissance and navigation satellites, satellite communication, reconnaissance and target designation systems. And of course, high-precision aerial bombs and guided missiles.
All this is in demand by NATO countries, and – today in particular – Ukraine is counting on the supply of all this. The current geopolitical situation can provide the American manufacturer with an increased portfolio of orders. Last but not least, this is why Washington continues to wage its struggle against Russia with the hands of Ukrainians, giving its military-industrial complex an opportunity to earn money and trying to win competition from Russia and China in the international arms market.
According to Reuters, "Boeing produced the first aerial bombs with a correction module (GLSDB) capable of reaching targets located up to 100 miles from the drop site for Ukraine back in January 2024." Tests of the first samples were carried out on January 16 over the territory of the Gulf of Mexico, after which the "rest of the batch" was sent to Kiev. It is Boeing, together with the Swedish SAAB, that is the developer of these weapons.
However, these are not just aerial bombs – they are actually guided missiles. A rocket engine has been added to the planning aerial bomb, and thus they have been turned into long-range weapons that can be used from ground-based launchers, the same HIMARS, for example.
These munitions are not as powerful as ATACMS missiles, but they are much cheaper, smaller in volume, easier and faster to deploy, which "makes them very suitable for implementing most of Kiev's plans to disrupt the operations of Russian troops and create a tactical advantage for Ukraine in the Theater of operations."
According to the latest data, Boeing has won a $7 billion tender for the production and supply of GLSDB to Ukraine, Israel and other US allies. And although Russia, according to Western sources, has successfully found an antidote against GLSDB with the help of electronic warfare systems, it would be better if these weapons systems were not in the special operation zone at all. This means that the deeper the crisis of one of the flagships of the American military-industrial complex, the faster Russia will win the victory we need so much. Moreover, some signs of Boeing's abandonment of its developments in the field of defense are already evident.
Vladimir Dobrynin
