Boeing is one of the world’s largest aerospace companies and the 4th largest arms producer globally. Headquartered in the US defence contractor hub of Arlington, Virginia, Boeing started as Aero Products Company in 1916 to support the burgeoning civil aviation industry. Boeing has three business segments: Commercial Airplanes (BCA); Defense, Space & Security (BDS), and Global Services (BGS), its international strategy and operations wing.
Boeing’s defence segment, Defense, Space & Security (BDS) was founded in 2002 to integrate defence, space, intelligence and communications capabilities. Its key markets are aeronautics, space and weapons. Boeing posted global revenues of US$ 66.5 billion in 2024, 36% of which was due to its defence segment. Three-quarters of its defence revenues were from US government clients. Boeing has several hundred subsidiaries globally. These include significant defence-oriented subsidiaries in Australia and the UK and a research and technology-oriented subsidiary in Spain that supports Boeing’s defence work.
Boeing in the UK
Boeing has been active in the UK since 1938. It has five active subsidiaries in the UK: Boeing UK Training and Flight Services Limited, Boeing Defence UK Limited, Boeing United Kingdom Limited, Boeing Technical Services UK Limited, and Jeppesen U.K. Limited. Boeing employs over 4,000 staff across 30 locations in the UK in support of the Boeing’s business; 2,100 of these work on its defence business specifically. A selection of its defence operations in the UK is highlighted below.
Boeing reports that over 120 of its defence platforms are operated by the British Armed Forces, making the UK one the company’s most significant military markets. These include the Chinook and Apache attack helicopters, and the C-17 Globemaster lifter. Boeing staff at RAF Brize Norton support the UK’s fleet. The RAF’s planned Airborne Early Warning and Control fleet will be composed of Boeing E-7 Wedgetail, a twin-engine airborne early warning and control aircraft. The Wedgetails are being produced in from a modification facility in Birmingham. Boeing employees at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland support the UK’s fleet of P-8 Poseidon, a maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft.
Boeing also provides the “Gladiator” synthetic training environment for RAF pilots based at the Air Battlespace Training Centre at RAF Waddington, in Lincolnshire, and training on C-17s at Farnborough. Boeing reports that it is “exploring the utility and feasibility of autonomous and synthetic capabilities” that can be “tailored to UK requirements.” Since 2008, Boeing has applied for multiple UK military export licenses to: the US, the UAE, Israel and Australia. It has also applied for a single licence to a further 150 other countries and territories.
Aircraft and UAVs
Boeing’s best known offerings to militaries globally are its wide range of military aircraft, including some of the world’s best known military aircraft, the Apache attack helicopters, and Chinook heavy lift helicopter and the C-17 Globemaster lifter.
Apaches have been used in military operations in countries including Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Elsewhere, the Polish air force is set to acquire a fleet of AH-64E Apaches in 2028 and is already training on their use. The CH-47 Chinook helicopter is also widely used or ordered by national militaries outside of the UK and US, which include Japan, Spain, and the UAE.
Boeing is also involved in Ukraine, where it is working with Antonov to rebuild the local aerospace industry, particularly to develop UAVs.
Missiles
Boeing produces a range of missile products. These include the JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition). Boeing reports that it has produced 230,000 JDAM tail kits since 1998 and they are in us by the US military and by 26 international militaries. It also produces the GBU-39 guided small diameter bomb (SDB) used by the Israeli Air Force.
Controversies
Israel and the Palestinian territories
Boeing’s provision of military equipment to the Israeli military has attracted criticism globally. Boeing-manufactured GBU-39 munitions, which are designed to be smaller and intended to be “more discriminate and precise” bombs have been used against Gazan civilians. For example, Truthout reported that remnants of bombs used in an attack on a camp of displaced Palestinians outside Rafah, which killed at least 45 and injured 240, were manufactured by Boeing. According to SIPRI data, Boeing was the leading arms manufacturer of missiles and munitions delivered to Israel from 2021- 2023.
In January 2025, US President Trump lifted an embargo on supplying military equipment to Israel which included an order of 2,000-pound heavy bombs provided by Boeing. The shipments had previously been withheld by the Biden administration. Boeing did not respond to concerns raised by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. In 2024, Israel was also set to acquire 25 F-15IA combat jets from Boeing, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Saudi Arabia and Yemen
The Saudi military has used Boeing technologies in its campaigns in Yemen. A Boeing-made GBU-31 satellite-guided bomb were identified in 2016 as having been used by Saudi forces to kill civilians in Yemen, according to Human Rights Watch. HRW also identified remnants of a US-supplied MK-84 2,000-pound bomb paired with a Boeing-manufactured Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) in its March 2016 of bomb sites in Yemen.
In March 2023, a group of human rights NGOs and civil society organisations co-signed an open letter to Boeing. The letter raises concerns regarding Boeing’s operations in Saudi Arabia and the company’s role in facilitating “devastating travel bans on peaceful dissidents, rights advocates and their family members”. Boeing did not respond to the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s request for comment.
Ukraine and Russia
The Ukrainian military receives and uses Boeing equipment, including as part of military assistance from the US and UK, for use in its war with Russia. For example, in 2023 the UDF was set to receive a Boeing high-precision GLSDB (Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb) system. In 2025, Boeing and the Ukrainian Defence Ministry were in talks about jointly developing unmanned aerial systems (drones). In June 2025, Russian strikes hit Boeing’s office in Ukraine in apparent retaliation for the company’s prominent role arming Ukraine.
Extraordinary rendition flights
In 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCLU) brought a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, on behalf of five plaintiffs who claim that they had been abducted, transferred by aeroplane to secret locations and subjected to torture on US government orders as part of its “war on terror”. In filings it was alleged that since 2001, Jeppesen had provided the CIA with flight plans and logistical support for the aircraft used in such flights. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, effectively closing it.
Fraud and commercial espionage
Boeing has been embroiled in repeated scandals over the reliability of its 737 commercial airline, several of which have been subject to catastrophic and deadly failures, leading the company to face various civil and criminal charges. The scandal was widely reported to have affected confidence in Boeing among its investors, clients and ordinary citizen flyers. For example, a New York Times investigation found that Boeing did not provide critical safety information to Ethiopian airlines pilots in 2019 regarding the flawed control system of a 737 MAX, which crashed and killed all aboard, despite repeated requests. The US Department of Justice ordered the company to pay a US$ 2.43 million fine and damages to victims’ families to settle the charges.
Boeing staff have also been repeatedly probed over allegations of commercial espionage, which briefly led to a various contract bans in the early 2000s.
Protest actions
Because of its global prominence, Boeing has frequently been the target of campaign and protest action. In 2023, CAAT organised protests of the London sites of top arms manufacturers, including Boeing. In 2022, the company was forced to relocate its headquarters from Chicago following sustained protest and campaign actions.
