Posted on 10/20/2019 10:52:08 AM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
CPI Aerostructures Inc.’s stock climbed Thursday after the company announced that it had won a contract worth as much as $48 million to re-wing Cold War-era A-10 “Warthog” jets, which the Pentagon previously had marked for retirement.
Vincent Palazzolo, chief financial officer of Edgewood-based CPI Aero, said in an email that the aerospace manufacturer has been seeking to add 10 to 15 employees to its workforce of 305 and that an additional 10 to 15 would be needed when A-10 work ramps up in 2020.
Shares of CPI Aero climbed 2.4 percent Thursday to close at $8.19. The stock was trading at $7.21 12 months ago.
In August 2014, CPI Aero took a $44.7 million noncash charge related to plans by the Pentagon to retire the A-10s, which were manufactured on Long Island.
“This award builds on our decadelong experience in manufacturing wing structures for the A-10 and cements our role as a key supply chain partner to Boeing on this aircraft to 2030 and beyond,” Douglas McCrosson, president and chief executive of CPI Aero said in a statement.
In its fiscal 2015 budget, the Air Force had estimated that retiring the A-10 would let it save $4.2 billion over five years.
Military campaigns in the Middle East, however, put the A-10 back to work. The ground-attack jet with a seven-barrel Gatling gun was designed to defeat Soviet tanks in Europe, but also proved adept at providing air support to ground troops seeking to defeat ISIS militants in the Middle East.
Under the new indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity agreement with prime contractor Boeing Co., CPI Aero will deliver structural assemblies and subassemblies for the wings of the A-10. The first delivery is expected in late 2020.
In August, Boeing announced it had won an Air Force contract with a maximum value of $999 million to re-wing up to 112 A-10s.
More than 700 A-10 Thunderbolts were made by Farmingdale-based Republic Aviation Co. (later to become Fairchild-Republic Co.).
The A-10s nickname sprang from an Air Force major who said the jet was “ugly as a warthog,” according to an account by Elliot Kazan, who died in August 2018. The Dix Hills aeronautical engineer was the project manager overseeing the jet’s production.
That is great.
I'm licensed and I still have all my tools. Let's get at it.
48 mil is cheap for the proven value the aircraft provides. Over the years, all of the upgrades to the B-52 have kept it as a viable asset. It is on track to outlast its follow-on, the B-1.
Those are merely the opinions of the insignificant ground troops who have been saved by them, and the actual lowly pilots who have been brought back to base even when they were subject to amazing amounts of battle damage.
They do not reflect the opinions of important people, the top brass, who loathe the A-10 because it's slow and homely.
Nor do they reflect the opinions of even more important people, the few enemy terrorists who managed to survive their encounters with "The Cross in the Sky".
Because technology gets better. Both the technology aimed at it and the technology available to it. To keep it great you’ve got to keep it advancing.
Isn’t it the safety and support of our ground warriors that is most important? It certainly is to me.
August 2019. "Air Force awards new A-10 wing replacement contract" The Air Force awarded a new contract to Boeing Company, St. Louis, Missouri, to replace up to 112 wing assemblies for the A-10 Thunderbolt II. An indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract with a $999,000,000 ceiling, and also provides for up to 15 wing kits. Work will be performed at multiple subcontractor locations in the United States and one subcontractor location in South Korea and is expected to be complete by August 23, 2030.Now CPI Aerostructures Inc. wins a contract worth as much as $48 million to re-wing the A-10.The Air Force currently has a fleet of 281 A-10s and recently announced the completion of wing replacements for 173 A-10 aircraft, by Boeing, from an earlier contract award.
A-10 Program Office officials said the contract terms to re-wing “up to” 109 aircraft, plus three spares, allows the Air Force flexibility, depending on how many aircraft are needed for the future.
The Company also announced that it has received initial purchase orders under the IDIQ contract valued at approximately $6 million for the production of 4 shipsets of assemblies and associated program start-up costs.
I guess it adds up. Looks like about $1.25 million per "shipset" (I guess a "shipset" is a set of new wings for one A10 aircraft).
Give them to the United States Border Patrol.
Many times I have seen A-10s doing touch and goes and simply flying in patterns at a local airport, LNS (Lancaster, PA). It is amazing watching those big ugly things doing tight turns and streaking across the skies. I assume they are being flown to keep the pilots certified and well practiced. Not sure where they’re based out of, but they are impressive machines. Some others watching have asked what the Hell they are and I have just said that they’re Warthogs, and I am damned glad they are on our side.
s a former A-10 Hog Driver, it is a tremendous asset in the air-to-ground world. Fun to fly and firing the gun is the most fun you can have with your trousers on.
The gun sends the A-10 round when you want anything dead. Ballers come out at 3,600 feet per second at 112,600 rpm, train ground can penetrate an inch and a half of armor at 6,000 feet, whereas the 20mm “pop-gun” on other jets need to close to 2,000 feet.
I could go on but you get the point.
Classic!
If those beasts keep just one of our kids from coming home in a body bag, I’m ok with the relatively insignificant costs to keep them flying.
Thanks for your service and the 1st hand info.
Yup Ugly.
What happens when a d-rat Pres. gets in though?
Interchangeability of parts, air frames made with new tooling have no guarantee that parts for one series of aircraft built with the old tooling will fit to air frames built with the new tooling and vice versa.
Think cheap aftermarket Chinese replacement fenders for your bent-up car. They don't quite fit right. Bad enough for your soccer mom mobile, potentially fatal under the high stresses of combat.
The A-10 was designed with the intent of being able to take undamaged parts from unflyable birds and 'Frankenstein' them together in the field and get them back in combat. Keeping track of which salvaged wig can fit which series would be a logistical nightmare.
So why can't we re use the old tooling?
It was ordered destroyed at the end of the first run of the contract.
Top Airforce Brass really hates the A-10...
Forward my gratitude for his service.
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