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Obama budget: Fewer killer Ospreys to be built at Boeing Delco (Update)

Rep. Meehan wants the count back up

(Adds comment from Boeing) President Obama's 2017 budget includes funding for just 16 new V-22 Osprey ships to get built for the Marines at Boeing's Ridley Township war helicopter factory, which employs around 5,000 (corrected), making it the Philadelphia area's largest military contracting plant. The Pentagon's 2013 procurement contract called for 18.See the Navy's new procurement schedule in the  budget here.

Will the tighter budget cost local  jobs? "The president's budget request is the first step in a long process that will ultimately set the fiscal 2017 Defense Department budget. When all is said and done later in the year, we don't expect to see a negative impact on the Philadelphia site," Boeing spokesman Jim Condelles told me.

You can bet U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Delaware County, like his predecessors in that job, will labor to prevent the assembly lines from going slack. He put out a quick statement, praising Boeing's union workers and the vertical take-off and landing craft: "The V-22 Osprey has proven itself to be one of the most versatile aircraft in the Pentagon's inventory. Marine commanders will tell you that the Osprey gives them unprecedented ability to move troops and material around the battlefield...

"The multi-year contract agreed to in 2013 is estimated to save taxpayers some $818 million in procurement costs. Breaking it now could send per-airframe costs higher. It will threaten jobs at the Ridley Park facility. And it will deprive our troops and commanders in the field of an asset they need...  I will work with my colleagues to support the production of all 18 V-22s." Meehan will no doubt lean on his House appropriations colleagues.