Boeing Co. is hoping recently won contracts and future wins will help offset cuts to the company’s major focus in Orange County.
Future Combat Systems, a program to overhaul the Army’s battlefield surveillance with robots and sensors, is seeing funding cuts by the Pentagon.
Two weeks ago, an initial 60 Boeing workers in Huntington Beach were given notice they would be cut from the $160 billion Future Combat Systems program.
The workers aren’t necessarily being laid off,Boeing hopes to find other jobs for them, possibly on other military contracts or future work in cyber security, surveillance and reconnaissance.
Boeing is the fourth largest employer in the county with about 9,200 workers.
The cuts to Future Combat Systems are part of the reduction plan that started in April when Defense Secretary Robert Gates cut an $87 billion vehicle portion of the program.
The local cuts at Chicago-based Boeing are part of an effort to cut Future Combat Systems’ workforce by 30% at the company.
In all, about 600 positions will be cut from the program, which employs about 2,000.
Boeing is set to see more jobs impacted locally. The bulk of job cuts for Future Combat Systems are expected to be announced this week.
Some of the 60 jobs already affected include positions at San Diego-based SAIC Inc., Boeing’s lead subcontractor on Future Combat Systems.
SAIC said it plans to cut 140 jobs on the program but hasn’t broken down the cuts by facility.
The company has about 160 Orange County workers with offices in Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Brea and Seal Beach. SAIC employs 45,500 people overall.
Many Boeing workers expected to be impacted will be redeployed to other programs, according to a company spokesman.
“The number of actual job losses will be less than the reduction in the program workforce,” he said.
Boeing has been known to have sizable shifts in workers as the number and scope of its contracts fluctuates.
Earlier in the month the company said it would cut about 1,000 jobs from Future Combat Systems and missile defense programs due to Pentagon cutbacks and shifting priorities for the military.
At the beginning of the year, Boeing said it planned to cut 10,000 jobs across the entire company as it anticipated a slowdown.
Hopes of new work could come from what the Army calls its Ground Combat Vehicle program, which is in the early stages.
Much of that work is likely to draw on what the Future Combat Systems program started, according to Boeing.
The Future Combat Systems program itself is being renamed Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization, according to Boeing.
The Ground Combat Vehicle program seeks to remedy problems with the old vehicles that Gates said weren’t equipped to handle roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gates also said Boeing had too much control over the dozens of suppliers it worked with. He’s encouraged opening up bids for a more effective vehicle.
About 50 OC suppliers are working with Boeing on Future Combat Systems, including Huntington Beach-based System of Systems Integration Laboratory, which handles modeling and simulation, computers and software and testing.
The unmanned planes and robotic fighter planes portion of the program remains intact for Boeing.
Much of the work that goes on in Huntington Beach is integrating technology and software development, according to the company.
It’s not clear where displaced workers from the program may go within Boeing.
Recent contracts for Boeing’s local operations include one to build satellites as part of its El Segundo-based Space and Intelligence Systems, which has operations in Seal Beach.
Last year, Boeing let go people from the satellite operation, including 50 from Seal Beach, after it failed to get a contract.
Lat month, Boeing got a $43 million contract to help modernize the Navy’s missile destroyers with better communications. The five-year contract mostly will tap its Huntington Beach operation.
It also recently won a $15 million contract for work on the Fast Access Spacecraft Testbed, to be used for communications, radar and satellite missions with the International Space Station.
Another piece of business could come from the Pentagon’s $35 billion contract to replace its aging refueling tanker. Last year, a tanker contract was tossed out after Boeing protested the award going to Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman Corp.
Last week Boeing reported second quarter earnings of $998 million, up 17% from a year earlier as sales rose 1% to $17.5 billion.
