It was a Friday evening in September 2024 when the news finally broke. Ted Colbert was out. No long goodbye, no "spending more time with family" fluff—just a memo from Boeing's new CEO Kelly Ortberg saying the exit was effective immediately. Honestly, if you follow the aerospace world, you probably saw it coming, but the abruptness still felt like a gut punch to the division.
Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) has been a mess. That’s the simplest way to put it. We’re talking about a unit that was once the bedrock of American air power, now drowning in billions of dollars of losses. When Ted Colbert took over in April 2022, he was basically handed a bucket and told to bail out a sinking ship. He didn't sink it—the leaks started years before he arrived—but he couldn't stop the water from rising either.
The Impossible Task: Ted Colbert and the Boeing Defense Crisis
You’ve got to feel for the guy a little bit. Colbert didn't sign the "fixed-price" contracts that are currently bleeding Boeing dry. Those were legacy deals for things like the KC-46 tanker and the T-7A Red Hawk trainer jet. In a fixed-price deal, if costs go up because of inflation or supply chain hiccups, the company eats the bill. Boeing has eaten a lot of bills lately.
By the time Colbert left, the defense unit had logged more than $1 billion in charges just in the first half of 2024. That’s on top of $1.6 billion in 2023. It’s hard to keep your job when the numbers look like that.
But it wasn't just the money. The Starliner disaster was likely the final straw. Watching your spacecraft return from the International Space Station empty—leaving two astronauts behind to wait for a SpaceX ride—is the kind of public relations nightmare that kills careers. It made Boeing look incompetent. In the high-stakes world of defense and space, "sorry, our thrusters failed" doesn't cut it.
A Career Built on Data, Not Just Airframes
Ted Colbert wasn't your typical "airplane guy." He didn't grow up on the factory floor. He was a tech wizard.
He came up through the IT ranks, serving as Boeing’s Chief Information Officer before moving to lead Boeing Global Services. He was an expert in data, analytics, and supply chains. This made him a bit of an outsider in a division dominated by engineers and retired generals.
- Education: Dual degree from Georgia Tech and Morehouse College.
- Previous Role: CEO of Boeing Global Services (the one part of Boeing that actually makes money).
- Reputation: Known for being incredibly sharp and focused on "predictability."
He tried to bring that predictability to the defense side. He famously vowed that Boeing would stop bidding on the kind of "suicide contracts" that led to the current financial hole. He even pulled Boeing out of the "Doomsday Plane" (E-4B) replacement competition because the terms were too risky.
It was the right move. But for the board, it was too little, too late.
Why Ted Colbert Left Boeing Defense Now
Timing is everything. Boeing has a new boss, Kelly Ortberg, who is desperately trying to clean house and restore trust. Ortberg is an engineer who actually lives in Seattle—a symbolic move to show he’s focused on the work, not the corporate suites in Virginia.
Colbert’s departure was part of a broader "reset." You can’t tell investors you’re fixing the culture while the same people are running the departments that keep failing.
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- Financial Hemorrhage: The defense unit just couldn't find its footing.
- Quality Issues: From the T-7A's ejection seat delays to Starliner’s leaks, the "Boeing Standard" had become a joke in D.C.
- The Strike: In late 2024, Boeing was hit by a massive machinist strike. This added even more pressure to a company already on the brink.
Steve Parker, the former COO, stepped in as interim and eventually became the permanent replacement in July 2025. Parker is a 36-year Boeing veteran. He’s the "internal stability" pick. Basically, Boeing decided they needed a mechanic, not a data scientist, to fix the engine.
The Legacy of a Short Tenure
Was Ted Colbert a failure? It’s complicated. If you look at the stock price and the margins, yeah, the tenure was rough. But if you look at the systemic issues he inherited, he was sort of a sacrificial lamb.
He did manage to hire thousands of new employees to try and fix the "brain drain" that happened during the pandemic. He pushed for digital transformation in how planes are designed. These are things that won't show up on a balance sheet for another five years.
What’s Next for Boeing Defense?
Since Colbert’s exit, things have stabilized—sort of. Under Steve Parker and Kelly Ortberg, the unit actually reported some positive margins in late 2025, even with the ongoing labor disputes in St. Louis. They’re finally moving past some of those toxic fixed-price contracts.
But the road back is long. NASA is still skeptical. The Pentagon is looking at other contractors like Anduril and Northrop Grumman with a lot more interest than they used to.
Actionable Insights for the Future:
- Watch the T-7A and MQ-25: These are the "canary in the coal mine" programs. If Boeing can deliver these on time under the new leadership, the "Colbert Era" will be seen as the bottom of the curve.
- Leadership Style Matters: The shift from Colbert (a tech-focused leader) to Parker (an operations-focused leader) shows that Boeing is prioritizing manufacturing "meat and potatoes" over high-level digital strategy right now.
- The "Space" in BDS: Keep an eye on whether Boeing tries to sell off its space business. There have been rumors for a year that they might want out of the satellite and Starliner business altogether to focus on jets.
Ted Colbert's story is really the story of modern Boeing: a company with brilliant people and legendary products that got tangled up in bad financial bets and lost its way. Whether he was the problem or just the guy standing there when the music stopped is something historians will argue about for a while.
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Next Steps:
If you're tracking the aerospace industry, look into the 2025 performance reports of the Boeing F-47 program. It's the first major win under the post-Colbert leadership and will tell you everything you need to know about whether the "reset" is actually working or if the company is still just slogging through the mud.