Posted on 07/12/2010 10:33:04 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
European aerospace giant Airbus has cut its prices in a bid to win a fight with US rival Boeing for a 40-billion-dollar US Air Force contract, a German business daily reported on Monday.
Airbus has cut the proposed cost for the contract to build 179 aerial refuelling tankers by at least 10 percent from the level in a previous offer in 2008, the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) reported, citing industry sources.
Last week, the two competitors submitted their offers to Washington, setting the stage for a high-stakes transatlantic trade scrap.
It will be the third time the contract has been awarded.
In 2003, Boeing won the deal, but the decision was overturned after a conflict of interest emerged between the Pentagon and the aircraft manufacturer.
Five years later, Airbus won a second call for proposals in a joint bid with US firm Northrop Grumman but again the decision was annulled when the US Government Accountability Office found the offers were incorrectly analysed.
Northrop Grumman subsequently withdrew from the race triggering uproar in Europe with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel accusing Washington of bias in favour of the all-American Boeing plane.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Gee, and the Boeing gets grief for the stuff they’ve done, yet the EU subsidizes airbus, so they can undercut the American company.
Boeing can use the information that Airbus is delibrately undercutting them and take it to Capitol Hill
...and talk to who? Do you really think anyone in the 0bama admin cares about that rich, warmongering, evil corporation, Boeing? Better to support the 'enlightened' Europeans and 'stimulate' their economy.
Airbust should not even be considered eligible to bid on this contract or any other contract where the military is concerned.
It seems to me many the reputable miltary analysis say Airbus offers the much better deal, but this will probably come down as a political/US economic deal, if you ask me?
I am sure there are sympathetic Congressmen whose districts depends on Boeing contracts
I agree
Ping
is this 10% below the former EADS $35B bid, or 10% below the $40B Boeing would like the bid to be?
What's next? Should we have the military buy Chinese-made weapons because they are cheaper?
When is the decision due? I can’t imagine the democrats want to head into an already difficult election with Team Zero having just sent a big and highly visible chunk of the defense industrial base, and thousands of jobs, to Europe.
Why don’t we have congress just meet in europe from now on - it would save money on flights there and back, and treasury could just wire funds to them
I work for a company in the same general industry as Boeing, sometimes we partner on contracts, sometimes we compete. That said, I'm still 100% in favor of awarding the contract to Boeing. (and no, I would have nothing to do with that one) Still, American defense dollars should be going to maintain America's industrial base. Yes, I know Northrop Grumman is partnered with EADS in the competition. It isn't the same.
Me too, but that will go no where with this administration.
In fact, my home area of the northern Gulf Coast would benefit mightily if Boeing lost the contract.
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