The plant, the Philadelphia region’s largest industrial employer, has about 3,000 workers, including roughly 840 union members on the production line and more than 2,000 engineers and managers. Boeing and government officials say the company could decide in the coming years to close the site; Boeing plans to assess next year’s federal budget before making a decision.

The proposed 2027 military budget funds five Chinook upgrades. Congress could add money for seven more during its post-election session, but that would still fall short of the 18 aircraft a year Boeing describes as the minimum sustainable production rate. The company wants a commitment to that level for at least four years to maintain a dependable flow of materials and parts.

In a recent letter to Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, U.S. Sen. David McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican and former Army paratrooper, outlined the consequences of the funding gap. If contracts dry up, he wrote, the Ridley site could close, idling production workers and affecting suppliers in Pennsylvania and at least five other states. Shifting repairs and parts sourcing to Army personnel would be more expensive, according to Army estimates cited in the letter.

Boeing says it has invested $400 million in factory upgrades since 2016, partly in anticipation that the Army would continue using Chinooks for decades. The company has built and modernized the heavy-lift helicopters in Ridley Township for about 60 years. International orders could help fill the gap, but Boeing has no additional Chinook orders beyond 2031 at present.

The plant’s workforce has already contracted. Jim Rugh, president of United Auto Workers Local 1069, said membership fell from about 1,300 in 2022 to roughly 840. Boeing lost a competition to replace the Army’s Black Hawk helicopters, and its Ridley plant’s Osprey production line is scheduled to close next year after the final new aircraft came off the line last year.

Rugh said the union has urged Boeing to find its members other work, including tasks connected to the company’s new Navy fighter contract. He pointed to the plant’s equipment and workers’ capabilities in areas such as metal and plastic processing, electrical work, painting and inspection. Boeing is building a new fighter-jet facility in St. Louis.

South Jersey Rep. Donald Norcross, a senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he is pressing Boeing to keep the Ridley operation and its suppliers working. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, whose district includes the plant, warned that a closure could hurt both national security and the regional economy, and said the low funding requests are not a sustainable basis for planning.

The funding concerns extend beyond Boeing. Leonardo’s Northeast Philadelphia plant employs nearly 1,000 people after the Italian company invested $125 million in its assembly and training facilities beginning in 2018. The Air Force initially ordered 85 Grey Wolf helicopters, then reduced the purchase to 45 and opted to upgrade older aircraft instead. The existing budget funds only half of the contracted aircraft, leaving Leonardo’s expected growth uncertain.

The two Philadelphia-area factories expanded on the expectation of sustained military contracts. Their prospects now depend on federal decisions about whether to fund the aircraft programs at a level that can keep local production and jobs in place.