Posted on 03/02/2008 2:51:03 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
What could have been a done deal for the Boeing Co. five years ago came down to a two-horse race and finally a multibillion dollar loss for Everett on Friday in the sweepstakes to supply the Air Force with new jet refueling tankers.The Air Force's announcement that the $35 billion deal goes to Northrop-Grumman and Europe's Airbus parent, EADS, angered members of Washington's congressional delegation and raised the prospect of congressional hearings on the decision.
"We are outraged that this decision taps European Airbus and its foreign workers to provide a tanker to our American military," six members of the congressional delegation said in a joint statement. "This is a blow to the American aerospace industry, American workers and America's men and women in uniform."
"I was shocked by the announcement today that the Air Force intends to award the contract for the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers to the Airbus-Northrop Grumman team, and I believe there will be real skepticism among the defense-related committees in Congress," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. Dicks is a powerful member of a Defense Appropriation Committee, and funding of the tankers will have to go through his panel.
"While we will await the debriefing of the Boeing team to learn how and why the decision was made, I remain convinced that the Boeing 767 tanker version would have been an extremely capable aircraft that would have created 40,000 U.S. jobs, including 9,000 in Washington state," Dicks said.
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Congressional members say they hope the decision wasn't influenced by a Boeing procurement scandal five years ago. And they expect Boeing to protest the decision.
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The GAO has 100 days to deny or uphold a protest.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldnet.com ...
If that’s what it takes to prevent Europe from building our plane-good for him.
Ahnold should obtain jobs here in Calif using the Riley trick.
All he’d need to do is barter FED money for a 40/60 split contract with China to make Boosters for the Star wars projects!
The yuan is a better deal for the dollar than a EURO.
And he’d be creating jobs for Americans!
If it is a strategic industry then it should be required. Maybe aircraft production is not considered a strategic industry. Is it?
It certainly is.
And, strategically, it makes sense to keep other American military aircraft producers, besides just Boeing, financially healthy.
Although you might have missed it, this contract was awarded to a partnership between Northrop-Grumman and the Europeans.
The Northrop-Grumman history includes such backbones of America's defense as the Hellcat, the Intruder, the Hawkeye, the F-14 Tomcat and the B-2 bomber.
That’s good...very funny. You know Arnold is the reason I won’t vote for McCain in November. After watching what that RINO has done to California and the Republican Party, there is no way I want McCain doing the same thing as president.
What percent of those projects were done by foreign nations?
The only thing it will prevent is getting a tanker replacement to the Air Force in a timely manner.
I rest my case. Isn’t it wonderful to feel secure??
Sometimes a delay stops the project altogether. I say delay, delay and delay some more. I don’t want Euroweenie airbus making this plane period.
The percentage "which were done by foreign nations" in order to get the best aircraft in the hands of our Armed Forces varies from era to era.
In World War One, the percentage was 100%.
SPAD XIII, 94th Aero Squadron (replica)
Eddie Rickenbacker and his Nieuport 28, 94th Aero Squadron.
Breguet 14, 96th Aero Squadron
Oh, sure. Deny the warfighter what he needs. Hell, he doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you, and only you, get your way!
The Northrop-Grumman history includes such backbones of America's defense as the Hellcat, the Intruder, the Hawkeye, the F-14 Tomcat and the B-2 bomber.
Something is rotten about this deal. Either the 767 or the 777 could have been used as the basis of Boeing’s proposal. USAF said that they weren’t interested in payload capability beyond fuel uplift and were concerned about fitting the new tanker into the KC-135’s infrastructure footprint. Boeing complied and EADS didn’t and then EADS gets the contract.
If our useless congressional delegation can manage to provide political cover, I believe that this will be Boeing’s basis for a protest of the contract award. If USAF really wants a large fuel capacity as well as a significant cargo uplift the 777 (pick your sub-model) beats the pantaloons off of the French bird. Which model has more sales? The only reason that Northwest and USAir fly the A330 is that they can get them cheap and that’s always been those two organization’s primary consideration for equipment.
With the exchange rate being what it is, there is no way in hell that EADS could price an airplane built in a Euro zone to be cheaper than one built in the USA. That is, of course, unless the massive amount of state aid that the maker of the airframe, Airbus, gets enables them to make the contract price impossibly low.
For all of the corruption and stupidity at Boeing these days,(most if not all caused by ex-McD execs) building large jet aircraft is what they do and it’s done better there than any other freaking place on the planet.
I only wish that there was a French Embassy nearby so that I could go burn tires in the street and throw rocks.
Namsman sends.
Last time I looked the HQ was in France and the largest plant was in France and the latest BIG air liner was built in France. I understand that Airbus is a consortium but with the HQ in France. So if it talks and walks it must be.
OK, but how about the socialists living in Europe?
If I’m not mistaken the French are the largest shareholder of Airbus. The French and German governments negotiate who the CEO will be.
Wasn’t it just 3 years ago the French were denying the US use of French airspace to fight the war on terror? And now we are going to let them control our access to tanker planes and spare parts? This is insanity!
If I’m not mistaken the French are the largest shareholder of Airbus. The French and German governments negotiate who the CEO will be.
Wasn’t it just 3 years ago the French were denying the US use of French airspace to fight the war on terror? And now we are going to let them control our access to tanker planes and spare parts? This is insanity!
Yeah! Rah, Rah and all that shallow patriotic stuff. Those dirty rotten southerners dun did it again, that’s xx times since the civil war. keep ‘em low and keep ‘em down cause duh north is the rightful economic region of the cantry.
If we could rely on all those countries to be our allies, great. But if just one of them either folds or is taken out, we are screwed!
On a similar line of thought, just how much of Boeing's supply is outsourced to overseas?
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