The 223rd and final C-17 cargo plane was delivered to the Air Force last week. The plane was manufactured at Boeing (the old Douglas Aircraft facility) in Long Beach, California. That’s the last airplane manufacturing facility in Southern California. The plant will be closed by 2015 and will result in the loss of 3,000 jobs.
Here is the problem. While Boeing cited sequestration, the Pentagon has made it clear for several years that it didn’t require more C-17s. However, lawmakers pushed through more orders to preserve jobs.
As reported in Businessweek, October 29, 2009, “Every year since 2006, the Pentagon has said that it has enough C-17s. And every year, Congress overrules the military and authorizes funds for additional planes. In October the Senate approved $2.5 billion in the 2010 budget for 10 more C-17s, which would bring the fleet to 215.”
The United States has created high paying jobs by ordering complex technology and other aerospace/biotech products from American companies. To a great extent the military-industrial complex has been the driver of jobs.
We give $1.3 billion of aid to Egypt in the form of military hardware. We even gave Russia $126 million in aid in 2010.
Top Recipients of U.S. Military Aid, FY2010
| Country | $ U.S. millions |
| Afghanistan |
6,800.3 |
| Israel |
2,799.5 |
| Egypt |
1,301.9 |
| Iraq |
1,006.0 |
| Pakistan |
913.9 |
| Jordan |
303.8 |
| Somalia |
204.0 |
| Colombia |
185.8 |
| Russia |
126.8 |
| Sudan |
104.9 |
| Mexico |
96.0 |
| Poland |
55.6 |
Is this the only way we can provide our citizens with good jobs?
Coast Contact 
The military’s budget called for cutting roughly 5,100 Air National Guard jobs and cutting the branch’s budget about $300 million.