Posted on 02/24/2010 7:54:54 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Air Force launched a new competition Wednesday for a contract to begin replacing the nation's aging fleet of aerial tankers, but it's not clear whether Northrop Grumman and its European partner will bid against Boeing for the $35 billion deal.
The initial contract is for 179 new tankers, but the deal eventually could be worth $100 billion as the Air Force replaces its fleet of about 600 Cold War-era tankers in what could be one of the largest Pentagon purchases ever.
There apparently were few major changes from an earlier "request for proposals" that drew sharp criticism from the Northrop Grumman-European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. team and its supporters on Capitol Hill.
Northrop and EADS officials Wednesday didn't indicate what they were planning to do, but Northrop officials earlier said that the company wouldn't bid unless significant changes were made to the request for bids.
"What today's release means is they most likely will not bid," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst for the Lexington Institute, a national security policy research institute in northern Virginia.
"Northrop Grumman will analyze the request for proposals and defer further public comment until its review of the document has been completed," said Randy Belote, a spokesman for the Los Angeles-based company.
Chicago-based Boeing said it was reviewing the voluminous document.
Pentagon officials said they were "playing it right down the middle" and were satisfied that the competition wouldn't favor either side.
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Sounds like the specs may have been written so that only Boeing can meet the requirements.
surprised?...I’m not...while I want American industry to do well, I don’t want a monopoly.....this smacks of practically a govt owned business gaining a govt contract...there is no competition and what does that say about quality?
The Obama administration — where “right down the middle” means far to the left.
I thought Northrop Grumman already won the KC-X tanker contract, am I missing something?
Isn’t Northrop Grumman’s bid based on the Airbus? I believe it is... and if so, why should provide employment to Europeans when American workers are struggling?
Actually it's providing employment for non-union Republican voting workers in Mobile, while union Democrat voting workers in Seattle are struggling.
Didn’t understand your post... Isn’t Northrop Grumman’s bid based on the Airbus? Isn’t that made in Europe?
I don’t care if there union or not, shouldn’t Americans get the jobs our tax money is going for?
We will keep having elections until the right man wins!
Built in Mobile, Alabama from British, French, Spanish, German parts.
As distinct from the Boeing, which will be built in Seattle from Italian, Japanese, Chinese parts.
Except the Euro parts are the tin bits, which usually last the life of the plane.
The bits that break or wear out (engines, electrics, hyrdraukics, refuelling equipment) are American made.
The plane would have been assembled in the US using mostly domestic components (i.e GE engines, much of the avionics, tires,.........).
“Built in Mobile, Alabama from British, French, Spanish, German parts.”
Don’t you mean assembled? Hell, I could assemble it if I had the parts...
There is a greater US labor component in the Boeing aircraft than in the Northrop. I would prefer to keep those jobs at home. If the argument is strictly between union vs non-union, the union workers are probably paid more and will therefore probably return more in way of income taxes to the government. Higher paid employees are also going to be more apt to engage in discretionary spending and provide greater support to their communities.
Only if you overlook that EADS will be moving the commercial A330 freighter line to Mobile. That makes the total amount of US work greater for the A330 over the Boeing 767 (A330 freighters are selling, Boeing 767 not)
If that’s the case, then the folks down in Mobile will have plenty of work already. Kick some pork up into this corner - we need the jobs.
Well no. the production facility move depends on tanker work being available. Otherwise it’s cheaper for EADS to assemble the freighters in Toulouse.
Sort of like modern cars. People have some sort of loyalty to a car brand based on national identity, when in reality these firms are multinational for the most part. Many Honda's are more “American” that a Pontiac. The German has some loyalty to BMW as if it's a German car, yet all the Z3s were made in the US, the 3 series sold here were made in S.C......... Hell, a Mercedes ML was made in either Alabama or Mississippi, all of them to include those sold in Germany. A Toyota Tundra is one of the most American made trucks on the road...... no kidding more American than Ford, GM or Dodge. What I'm saying sounds so far out that I better back it up: http://www.autospies.com/news/25-Vehicles-Less-American-Than-The-Toyota-Tundra-45655/
Most Opel's are more German than the German brands BMW and VW. Here's a funny one I actually saw! A sticker on a Pontiac Le Mans years back that said “Buy American, save jobs.” The Le Mans was designed in Germany (Opel Kadett). They eventually shut the production down and shipped the tooling (made in Germany) to S. Korea where the car was made by Daewoo. These cars were then shipped to the US and branded under Pontiac Le Mans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opel_Kadett From design, tooling, materials and manufacture, there wasn't much American on a Pontiac Le Mans. Cadillac Catera? Made in Ruesselsheim Germany, designed in Germany..... yet to the German the Opel is foreign, and to an American the Cadillac is American. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Catera lol
It is always fun to have discussions with folks that have this national identity thinking when it comes to multinational/global public firms....... With EADS it's a little different of course because this isn't a really private nor public firm but pseudo state owned and operated business composed of former state run firms like MBB/DASA, SNEMCA........ It's not any loyalty towards Boeing I have, but rather the rejection of a state monopoly that benefited from protectionism, blatant favoritism and unfair deals when the state run national airlines in many European nations years past bought their state built airplane, overt and under the table subsidies, near bullying within the EU to buy EADS products (Poland was beat upon politically because of their F16 deal with us.). EADS and Airbus were created by political decree, not a free market....... I don't think we should reward this. I don't think we should be so open-minded that we turn a blind eye to what they do when it comes to trade in this specific market.-IMHO
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