Boeing fighter contracts and competing suppliers

Why was a major new fighter programme likely to go to Boeing?

A major contract could keep Boeing's military-aircraft business active and preserve competing suppliers.

Lockheed Martin already has the F-35, while other fighter lines face closure or limited extensions. Boeing also missed the bomber programme, making another major contract important to its military-aircraft business. Its military products receive a more favourable assessment than its recent civilian-aircraft performance. Too few large defence companies remain for procurement to function as unrestricted competition. Spreading major programmes among surviving firms can preserve alternative suppliers, although it makes some outcomes easier to anticipate. Northrop's bomber work forms another part of this industrial division.