A much-touted deal in which Raytheon would open a plant in Meridian to build trainer jets, and employ 450 people, has collapsed.
Raytheon and and Italy’s Leonardo-Finmeccanica group announced Wednesday that they were “unable to reach a business agreement that is in the best interest of the U.S. Air Force.” The companies’ T-100 jets would have replaced the Air Force’s legacy T-38 Talon trainers.
Raytheon said in October that it would assemble the jets near Meridian Regional Airport if the Air Force chose the twin-engine fighter trainer.
In December, Raytheon held a red-carpet “inauguration” ceremony at Key Brothers Hangar at the Meridian airport, according to the Meridian Star.
Speakers that day included Raytheon President of Space and Airborne Systems Rick Yuse, Gov. Phil Bryant, Sen. Roger Wicker, U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper and Sen. Thad Cochran’s Chief of Staff Brad White. State Sen. President Pro Tem Terry Burton welcomed those in attendance and Speaker Pro Tem of the State House of Representatives Greg Snowden led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.