Boeing Finds Surprise Asset for Defense Comeback: Old Warplanes
- Unit head Caret rides returns of Super Hornet, Strike Eagle
- Next challenge is restoring growth as Pentagon contests loom
A U.S. Navy technician walks past a row of F/A-18 Super Hornet combat jets, manufactured by Boeing Co., aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier near Eastern Samar, the Philippines, on Nov. 20, 2013.
Photographer: Julian Abram Wainwright/Bloomberg
It wasn’t so long ago that Leanne Caret, head of Boeing Co.’s defense division, was warning of a grim future for one of the planemaker’s marquee fighter jets.
As finance chief of the business, Caret helped draft a disclosure tucked into the company’s 2014 annual report saying production of the F/A-18 Super Hornet was at risk of shutting down by 2018 due to stalled sales. But doomsday never came for the plane -- and Caret is now presiding over a resurgence for the Super Hornet and another Boeing fighter, the F-15 Strike Eagle.