Posted on 02/29/2008 1:53:16 PM PST by skeptoid
Boeing has lost the long-awaited and lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract to a competing bid based on an Airbus airplane, a respected and well-connected defense analyst close to the Air Force tanker deal said Friday.
Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, cited "100 percent reliable" government sources for his information.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
“The Democrats will probably cancel it anyway.”
I hope they do. Major defense items should be American made through and through, with American suppliers. This is a national security issue. If France gets in a snit and decides to withhold spare parts because they don’t like our foreign policy, what then?
The Northrop entry is nothing but a re-badged Airbus. Almost all the parts will still be made in Europe. Northop is basically just slapping their name on it to better sell it to Congress. Meanwhile, we twist a dagger into the back of yet another domestic defense supplier in favor of European firms.
Hell yes. Overturn this.
News reports say that Boeing is expected to file a formal protest.
In a related story, it will be interesting to see how quickly the awarding of this contract is tied to the Don Siegelman/Karl Rove/Bob Riley consiracy theory. The nutjobs in Alabama are working overtime and since the nice state with the good Democratic senators lost to the evil state with the vile Republican senators, I’m betting the Congressional hearings are not far behind.
If it's metric, I say send it back.
Hard to beleive. Cancel it and upgrade the 135’s
Our government has lost its collective brain.
Why in Hades would they want to take any move that weakens our own airline industry and strengthens Airbus?
Especially by a scheme that sends our tax dollars to Europe and creates more high paying industrial jobs there?
Haven't they been paying attention to concerns about the loss of manufacturing jobs in the USA?
I guess they figure the trade deficit isn’t yet high enough and the value of the dollar isn’t yet low enough to satisfy our European antagonists.
Maybe they just figure unemployment in the US isn't high enough yet.
Or perhaps they just hope that this will get the Europeans to like us more.
AHHHRRRGGGGG!!!!!!!
These people shouldn't be trusted running a McDonalds, let alone the US government.
In the P I the story says:
SNIP . . ..Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire said earlier this week during a visit to Washington, D.C., that she was optimistic about a Boeing win, but raised the possibility of a congressional inquiry or formal protest if it did not.
Boeing had this one in the bag, but they got greedy.
"The tanker deal collapsed in 2004 when it was learned that the Air Force's second-ranking acquisition official, Darleen Druyun, had negotiated an executive-level job with Boeing Chief Financial Officer Michael Sears during the tanker contract talks. Both were fired and landed in prison.
"The procurement scandal rocked Boeing. Phil Condit, Boeing's chairman and chief executive at the time, resigned and Boeing's reputation in Congress was seriously damaged."
That's just on the individual level... Anyway, the new plane will be converted and or built in Mobile. My guess is that after folks wound up fired and in jail, this decision will be completely transparent (as much as any military procurement can be so).
It’s stupid to build major systems offshore.
McDonald’s is one of the best run companies, and one of the nimblest, in the world.
Why would you wish this clown car on them?
Thanks. That’s it.
Lockheed/Martin makes tankers. C-130s have been fueling our jets for a long time!
How many MD-11's do you know about being stored in the desert? Just about every passenger MD-11 that comes on the market gets bought by an air freight company.
The 135s are decrepit. Twenty five years ago the airforce was buyng ex airlibe 707s (which were selling scrap value then) and swapping their tailfins into the KC-135 fleet.
The Northrup version will be assembled in Mobile, Alabama, adding several thousand jobs to my state. I’m happy for that, but worried for my Air Force if we ever have to cut ties to Europe.
With the dollar dropping like it is the cost of the plane if negotiated in euros will be drastically higher also. We will have to ship out a lot more cash to the Europeans, this on top of the Sikorsky loss of the President’s chopper is an insult to us all.
You know who builds the S-92 don't you?
Note that the official designation will be KC-45A.
Whats next? Turn over the production of our tanks and ships to Chinese companys?
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