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Lockheed’s strategy of basing its F-35 marketing strategy on its “stealth” capabilities is beginning to backfire as their effectiveness is being increasingly challenged by competitors and outside analysts. (RAAF photo) Boeing has been loudly criticising Lockheed Martin’s F-35 in hopes that the Navy and other clients will buy more of its EA-18G Growlers for support and F/A-18 Super Hornets as contingency. Developed in a Joint Strike Fighter contract that Lockheed won over Boeing in 2001, the F-35 is wildly over budget and has run into various design problems. Chief among them, according to Boeing, is the weakness of its stealth...

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] has delivered the first EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack (AEA) aircraft to the U.S. Navy test site at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The first EA-18G, known as aircraft EA-1, made the two-hour flight from St. Louis to Maryland with U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Matt Doyle and weapons system operator U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jamie Engdahl on board. EA-1 is the first of two test aircraft built under a System Development and Demonstration contract Boeing signed with the Navy on Dec. 29, 2003. "Delivering this aircraft today continues a promise we made to our customer,"...

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 04, 2006 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] yesterday rolled out the U.S. armed forces' newest airborne electronic attack aircraft, the EA-18G Growler, on time and within budget. Boeing presented the aircraft to a crowd of more than 750 U.S. Navy customers, industry partners and Boeing employees during a ceremony at its Integrated Defense Systems facilities in St. Louis. U.S. Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen, Chief of Naval Operations and guest speaker at the ceremony, said, "The Growler is a model of what a strong strategic relationship between the Navy and industry can do. It represents acquisition...