Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed that Trump administration military leaders are ’thinking about’ acquiring equity stakes in major defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Palantir Technologies. Lutnick justified the proposal by noting Lockheed Martin derives …
Howard LutnickTrumpLockheed MartinBoeingPalantirstate-capitalismconflicts-of-interestdefense-contractorscorruptioncorporate-capture
The Department of Justice notified Boeing and the federal court that Boeing breached its January 2021 deferred prosecution agreement by failing to maintain the required compliance and ethics program. The finding came after the January 5, 2024 Alaska Airlines door plug blowout revealed that Boeing …
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Joshua Dean, a 45-year-old former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems who had raised safety concerns about 737 MAX manufacturing defects, died suddenly after contracting a severe MRSA infection. Dean had been in good health and was known for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, making …
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John Barnett, a 32-year Boeing quality control manager and prominent whistleblower who had raised numerous safety concerns about the 787 Dreamliner, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in his truck in a hotel parking lot in Charleston, South Carolina. He was in Charleston for deposition …
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The Boeing 737 MAX scandal represents the deadliest case of regulatory capture and corporate crime in modern aviation history. Between 2011 and 2024, Boeing’s decision to prioritize profit over safety killed 346 people, cost $2.5 billion in fines, and resulted in zero criminal prosecutions of …
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A door plug blew out of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, at 16,000 feet during climb six minutes after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. The explosive decompression ripped the door plug from the fuselage, leaving a gaping hole in the aircraft. Miraculously, all 171 passengers and 6 crew …
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Senator Elizabeth Warren released a comprehensive report analyzing the defense contractor revolving door, identifying 672 cases where the top 20 defense contractors employed former government officials, military officers, members of Congress, and senior legislative staff. The analysis found that 91% …
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On February 4, 2021, the Biden administration announced it was pausing indefinitely two major precision-guided munitions sales to Saudi Arabia worth approximately $760 million—a $478 million Raytheon contract for 7,500 Paveway “smart” bombs and a $290 million Boeing contract for 3,000 …
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The Department of Justice charged Boeing with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in connection with the 737 MAX evaluation and entered a deferred prosecution agreement requiring Boeing to pay $2.5 billion in penalties. Despite evidence that Boeing executives knowingly deceived the …
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The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released its final 238-page report on the Boeing 737 MAX disasters, concluding that the crashes “were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of …
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The Department of the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract on September 8, 2020, to develop the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile system, initiating the engineering and manufacturing development phase of a program estimated to cost between …
Northrop GrummanU.S. Air ForceDepartment of DefenseBoeingOrbital ATKMilitary-Industrial ComplexDefense ContractorsNuclear WeaponsPentagon ContractsICBMs+1 more
On July 24, 2019, President Trump vetoed three congressional joint resolutions that would have blocked major components of his $8.1 billion emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including transfers of Raytheon Paveway precision-guided munitions. The vetoes overrode bipartisan Senate …
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On May 24, 2019, the Trump administration invoked a rarely-used emergency provision of the Arms Export Control Act to bypass congressional review and ram through 22 separate arms sales worth $8.1 billion to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared an …
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The Federal Aviation Administration finally grounded the Boeing 737 MAX on March 13, 2019, three days after the Ethiopian Airlines crash and only after 51 other countries had already banned the aircraft. China acted first on March 11, followed by Indonesia, Singapore, India, the European Union, …
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Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed six minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing all 157 people aboard from 35 countries. The crash was caused by the same MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) malfunction that downed Lion Air Flight 610 five …
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A fatal aviation disaster revealing critical design flaws in Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft. The crash of Lion Air Flight 610 exposed systemic issues in aircraft design, maintenance, and pilot training, resulting from a malfunctioning Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). …
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On October 11, 2018, just nine days after Saudi agents murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, President Trump declared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he would not cancel arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite the killing and mounting evidence of Saudi war …
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Northrop Grumman completed its $9.2 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK on June 6, 2018, gaining control of the premier supplier of solid rocket motors essential for missile systems and creating anticompetitive market dominance that the Federal Trade Commission warned would “reduce competition …
Northrop GrummanOrbital ATKFederal Trade CommissionDepartment of DefenseBoeingMilitary-Industrial ComplexDefense ContractorsMonopoly PowerMergers and AcquisitionsAntitrust+2 more
Boeing delivered its first 737 MAX 8 aircraft to Malaysian carrier Malindo Air on May 16, 2017, entering revenue service on May 22. The delivery occurred despite internal Boeing communications showing employees knew the aircraft had serious safety problems, including design flaws in the MCAS system …
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Boeing obtained FAA approval to exclude the MCAS (Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System) from pilot manuals, flight crew operations manuals, and all pilot training materials for the 737 MAX. This deliberate concealment meant that pilots flying the aircraft had no knowledge that a powerful …
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The U.S. Defense Department awarded Northrop Grumman a development contract for the B-21 Raider Long Range Strike Bomber on October 27, 2015, with an initial value of $21.4 billion that could eventually reach $80 billion over the program’s lifetime, representing one of the largest defense …
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Boeing accelerated 737 MAX development to a “frenetic” pace during 2015, attempting to deliver the aircraft in approximately four years instead of the decade typically required for new aircraft development. The rushed timeline came as Boeing fell nine months behind Airbus’s …
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In August 2013, Ali Bahrami, who led the FAA office overseeing Boeing aircraft certification, departed to join the Aerospace Industries Association. This move epitomizes regulatory capture, as Bahrami had been instrumental in pushing for increased industry self-regulation. Former FAA engineers …
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