Bloomberg News reports that Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has a whole lot of losing going on. Yesterday, Boeing suffered its fourth straight defeat in three months on a U.S. defense contract. This loss represents $41 billion in lost revenue.

Here are the four contracts:

• Yesterday. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) the world's largest defense company, beat Boeing for a $1.46 billion U.S. Air Force award to build a new network of navigation satellites for military and civilian use. The Air Force said it reviewed five years of past performance for both contractors. Boeing has yet to launch a single satellite under its most recent GPS contract from April 1996, and in 2006 the company forfeited $21.4 million and replaced the program's managers after delays and cost overruns.
• February 2008. EADS, parent of Airbus and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) won a $35 billion tanker contest for the Air Force. I've spilled much electronic ink on this one -- it looks like the Air Force changed the specifications for the project but only told EADS about the change.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) stock is falling this morning after the company lost a $35 billion contract which was awarded by the U.S. Air Force to two of its rivals. Under the contract, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) will build as many as 179 KC-45A refueling tankers for the Air Force. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on BA.

BA hit its 52 week high of 107.83 in July and set its 52 week low of 74.12 in January. This morning, BA opened at $79.32. So far today the stock has hit a low of $79.25 and a high of $80.89. As of 12:35, BA is trading at $80.34, down $2.45 (-3.0%). The chart for BA looks neutral and improving while S&P gives BA a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an April bear-call credit spread above the $90 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. This particular trade will make a 7.5% return in one and a half months as long as BA is below $90 at April expiration. Boeing would have to rise by more than 12% before we would start to lose money.

BA hasn't been above $90 since December and has shown resistance around $85 recently. This trade could be risky if the economy bounces back strongly, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the resistance BA should find around $85.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in BA.

For the second time this month, the United States Air Force has decided to ground hundreds of its older Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) F-15 fighter jets. Yesterday it grounded 452 of the fighters in its continued investigation into an accident earlier this month that has exposed some flaws in the planes.

Yesterday's grounding represents approximately 60% of the entire F-15 fleet, and the Air Force has stated that each and every plane will remain grounded until they can all be individually inspected and possibly repaired. Earlier this month, the entire fleet had been grounded, and was only put back into service on the 21st.

The problems first surfaced when Missouri Air National Guard training exercise went wrong. In the accident, the pilot was able to safely eject from the plane before crashing. Investigations into the accident have revealed flaws in the planes fuselage. Specifically, metal rails that hold the fuselage together.

The Air Force investigation has decided there are "possible fleet-wide airworthiness problems".

Shares of Boeing are trading up 0.2% on the day to $93.80, up $0.19.

[photo: JMZawodny]

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

All sorts of deals occurring this week at General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). The US Air Force has awarded GE Aircraft Engines a contract worth $8.9 million to manufacture and deliver 4,385 nozzle flaps used in aircraft engines. The deal works out to about $2029.65 per flap. You gotta love the wacky world of Pentagon procurement.

A $9 million deal is small peanuts for GE. GE Real Estate negotiated a $2.2 billion deal with Crow Holdings to purchase 147 properties -112 industrial buildings; 19 retails centers; six hotels; two office buildings; and assorted multifamily buildings. GE Real Estate has immediate plans to sell the 19 retail centers to Kimco Realty (NYSE:KIM) for approximately $900 million. The properties are in various locations throughout the US. GE Real Estate's portfolio is currently valued at $44 billion, with holdings in the US and 24 countries around the world.

Timed to coincide with the visit to Washington, D.C. of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, GE Transportation announced a $650 million deal to sell 310 railway locomotives to Kazakhstan for use along the China-Russia rail freight line that has been experiencing tremendous growth in rail traffic, particularly with the development of Kazakhstan's oil fields in the Caspian Sea region. Kazakhstan's GDP is the largest of all Central Asian economies.