Boeing
US aerospace giant; excluded from USAF CCA production franchise; Artemis SLS core stage contractor.
Boeing lost the US Air Force's first funded Collaborative Combat Aircraft production contracts to Anduril and General Atomics on 17 June 2026, a defeat for all three legacy primes as the same buyer keeps rewarding software-native rivals on delivery speed and price.
Last refreshed: 4 August 2026 · Appears in 3 active topics
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Autonomous Systems: Land & SeaBackground
Boeing, founded in 1916 in Seattle, is the United States' largest aerospace and defence manufacturer and the world's second-largest defence contractor, now headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It builds commercial airliners including the 737, 777 and 787, military aircraft such as the F-15 and B-52 Stratofortress, and precision munitions including the GBU-series bunker-busters.
Alongside its aircraft and munitions business, Boeing manufactures the core stage for NASA's Artemis programme, giving it a role in crewed spaceflight as well as conventional defence manufacturing. That dual footprint sits at an unusual crossing point: its aircraft and munitions see direct combat use by US allies and partners, its space work sits inside a programme facing sustained cost scrutiny, and its standing as a traditional integrator is increasingly tested by software-native entrants competing on delivery speed rather than manufacturing pedigree.
Autonomous rivals beat Boeing to contract
On 17 June 2026 the US Air Force awarded its first funded Collaborative Combat Aircraft production contracts to Anduril and General Atomics, passing over Boeing along with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman . The target price sits under $30 million per aircraft against $82.5 million for an F-35A, a signal that the Air Force is buying software-native volume rather than heritage integration.
The winner had already proved it could deliver: Anduril's Arsenal-1 line in Ohio shipped its first Fury aircraft four months ahead of schedule in March 2026, the only Collaborative Combat Aircraft production line running before any contract was signed . For Boeing, the loss confirms a buyer now weighing delivery speed above decades of manufacturing scale.
Boeing keeps shipping Artemis hardware
Boeing continues to deliver hardware for NASA's Artemis III mission even as its defence business absorbs the CCA loss. On 16 April 2026 the liquid hydrogen and oxygen tank assembly Boeing builds at its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Left by barge for Kennedy Space Center .
The shipment gives Boeing physical progress on a programme under sustained cost scrutiny: each Space Launch System flight costs roughly $4 billion, and total Artemis spending has already passed $93 billion without a crewed lunar landing . For Boeing, the core stage is currently the one piece of Artemis hardware moving without controversy.
Reference
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