Aerospace
Boeing Reveals First of New Innovative Defense Factories
Created with the specific goal of producing advanced composite components for future combat aircraft.
On September 12, the Defense, Space & Security (BDS) business segment of Boeing (NYSE: BA) presented its brand-new Sophisticated Composite Fabrication Center, which was created with the specific goal of producing advanced composite components for future combat aircraft.
Phantom Works, the exclusive research, development, and prototyping subsidiary of BDS will run the new facility in Mesa, Arizona, which will be a secure production facility. The 155,000-square-foot facility’s building phase is already finished, and this fall is when it will be completely operating.
The new Advanced Composite Fabrication Center and the factories that will follow it position Boeing to deliver the most digitally advanced, simply and efficiently produced, and intelligently supported aircraft to military customers.
Leveraging best practices from recent new-start programs like the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, MQ-25 Stingray, T-7A Red Hawk, and proprietary efforts, the ACFC will enable Boeing to scale a platform-agnostic, modular, and flexible digital production system across future BDS programs, providing unprecedented speed, agility, and cost efficiency. Additional new factories supporting subsequent phases of production are under construction in the St. Louis region and are slated to come online over the next few years.
According to Steve Nordlund, vice president, and general manager of Boeing Phantom Works, “The ACFC capitalizes on the latest in digital engineering – from initial concept and design to the production floor and sustainment – and its capabilities are directly aligned with our customers’ need to design, build, and field advanced combat aircraft on dramatically accelerated timelines.”
