Saab gets $101M order to build Boeing plane fuselage in West Lafayette
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Saab, a leading defense and security company, received a $101 million order to build plane fuselage systems at its West Lafayette manufacturing facility.
The $101.7 million order came from aircraft company Boeing to produce T-7A aft fuselage systems after the first two T-7A Red Hawks successfully arrived at U.S. Air Force bases for developmental flight tests, the company said in a release on Tuesday.
The first T-7A went to Edwards Air Force Base in Kern County, California, and the second went to Eglin Air Force Base in the western Florida Panhandle, three miles southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County.
“I’m incredibly proud of the dedication and hard work that the Saab team has put into the T-7A program. Our West Lafayette workforce has been busy ramping up production since manufacturing was transferred from Sweden to the United States. Our facility is full with new employees and equipment, and every day we see more progress. This new order means we can take our production to the next level,” said Erik Smith, president and CEO of Saab in the U.S., in a release.
Saab’s $37 million research and manufacturing facility in West Lafayette opened in 2021, with the expectation to hire up to 300 employees by 2027.