Posted on 03/03/2008 4:47:33 PM PST by NoLibZone
McCain Still Considering Tanker Deal
By MATTHEW DALY – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain said Monday that he hasn't made up his mind on a $35 billion Air Force contract awarded to the parent company of French plane maker Airbus.
McCain, the likely Republican nominee for president, helped scuttle a previous deal that gave the contract for the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers to Chicago-based Boeing Co.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a new competition with Boeing Friday to build the refueling planes in one of the biggest Pentagon contracts in decades.
"Having investigated the tanker lease scandal a few years ago, I have always insisted that the Air Force buy major weapons through fair and open competition," McCain told The Associated Press. "I will be interested to learn how the Air Force came to its contract award decision here and whether it fairly applied its own rules in arriving at that decision."
McCain's two Democratic rivals have criticized the Air Force decision, which came as a surprise to analysts and lawmakers and was widely seen as a major blow to Boeing. The company has supplied refueling tankers to the Air Force for nearly 50 years.
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois expressed disappointment Sunday that his home-state company lost out on the tanker contract. Obama said it was hard for him to believe "that having an American company that has been a traditional source of aeronautic excellence would not have done this job."
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said she was "deeply concerned about the Bush administration's decision to outsource the production of refueling tankers for the American military."
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
Conservatives are against big govt, pork, and earmarks for the district; Liberals are against military spending, but when it comes to defense contracts all rules are thrown out.
Defense spending is not a public works program.
Yeah, what about not using a U.S. based company? What not use Boeing?
McCain had better make up his mind soon.
maybe there are good reasons. All these reasons have been stated.
EADS/Northrop Grumman simply proposed a better plane for the contract. They should win.
With the price of the dollar dropping against the euro, will the price of the planes increase (paying more dollars to pay European manufacturers and workers)?
How smart is it to have your war aircraft built by foreign countries?
Caught that after rereading the article. EADS/Northrup Grumman is US-partnered company. If their product is better for the price, why should Boeing always get the nod just because Obama & Hillary want it to be so.
Most of the work is being done in the US (critics won’t tell you). Also, smart business people use the currency’s futures market to hedge. Or maybe they are paying the american workers in Ameros.
Boeings is a hypocrite: http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=auburn01&date=20040601&query=boeing+johannesburg
MOST of the plane is being built here in the US.
True it mostly is. But 42% is not.
http://www.northropgrumman.com/kc30/operations/section.html
That 42% is being built By Airbus which is in Tolusee France.
Google Muslims Riot in France.
We don’t build Airbuses in the U.S.
Big deal they put the tanks in them in Mobile.
John Murtha was out sick that day. Maybe they chose not to bid.
I don’t want MY F-22s to have to depend on a “French” airtanker for fuel!
{Who knows they might surrender}
Not really. The EADS base contract is slightly less than Boeing, but the maintenance cost and overall operating expenses of the EADS/Airbus make it a sour deal.
Ford is a US based company that owns Land Rover and Volvo.
Did you know that Range Rovers are not made in the US?
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