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 ...
Just goes to show this whole free trade thing is a bad idea? Guess they will have to drag me kicking and screaming into the 20th century. Oops, too late.
It didn't hurt them that in they got the criteria changed so their plane came out on top. Supposedly this was a contest to replace the KC-135, but Northrup/Grumman submitted a bid for a plane more similar to the capabilities of the KC-10 with a ground foot print larger than a B-52.
None of the airframe is being built here. It is being assembled here. NG will know nothing more about building* large airframes at the end of this contract then they do know.
*I mean designing from scratch. They are just “stuffing” this airplane.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.