Posted on 05/30/2008 9:48:40 AM PDT by MHalblaub
Well, obviously nobody knows the details except people on the inside. But if you have a major disruption in your supply chain just as you are going to war, it could be a serious matter. One month delay, six months, a year? Who knows? Days can be critical in such a situation.
If they did, it was with the government’s blessing. As far as I know, we haven’t supplied them with any since the fall of the Shah, an ally to whom we sold quite a lot of various aircraft and missile defense systems, some of which were inherited by the Mullahs, but most of which gradually became unusable.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce.htm
Right, and they are still operating them three decades later. So your worry
What happens down the line when they refuse to provide us with planes because they don't approve of some other mission?doesn't ammout to a hill of beans in the grand schemeOur government used to understand that you are at risk if you rely on other countries for critical war materials.
They are tankers. Basically airliners with US manufactured and fitted mission specific equipment, and US manufactued engines.
That the airframe bits came from originally from Europe won't matter. The aircraft can be kept current from US sources.
Why not have the banks for it?
Their profit margin is 20% comrade.
In what can only fall into the “wow” category, Lockheed Martin–the USA’s #1 defense contractor–praised the US Air Force for looking beyond the US shores in awarding the KC-X tanker contract to a consortium consisting of Northrop Grumman and France’s EADS, the parent of Airbus.
In a speech, yes, before a European audience, Lockheed’s chairman had this to say:
“The decision by the USAF to purchase Airbus tankers reinforces the openness of U.S. markets and is the most recent example of the growing willingness of the United States to look to global sources of supply for vital equipment. While our company is not involved in the Tanker program, Lockheed Martin is involved in a number of significant transatlantic programs.”
The full text of the speech may be found here. A press release may be found here.
The highly unusual nature of one US defense contractor praising a decision like this can’t be considered anything but a blow to Boeing’s long-running campaign about the USAF awarding this contract to a “French” company (notwithstanding that the contract is actually to Northrop Grumman).
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