Posted on 02/29/2008 7:13:12 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Air Force decision awarding a $35 billion aircraft contract to a team including the European parent of Airbus landed like a bomb in Congress on Friday, drawing howls of protest from lawmakers aligned with the loser, America's Boeing Co.The Congressional delegation from the Seattle area said they were "outraged." Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt vowed to seek a review of the decision "at the highest levels of the Pentagon and Congress" in hopes of reversing it.
Boeing has big facilities in both Seattle and Wichita, which stood to gain from the long-term project to build up to 179 aerial refueling tankers. Although Boeing was favored to win the contract, the Air Force awarded it to a partnership between Northrop Grumman and Europe's EADS.
Conventional wisdom was running so strongly against Northrop-EADS in some corners of Capitol Hill that Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's office issued a statement late on Friday declaring Boeing the winner. It was swiftly retracted.
Lawmakers from Alabama, where Northrop and EADS plan to do some tanker work, were effusive in praising the Air Force.
"I thought all along that the Northrop Grumman-EADS proposal was the best," Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, told reporters. He said the contract would bring nearly 7,000 jobs to the state.
On the disappointment of Chicago-based Boeing's allies, Shelby said he understood. "If Boeing had won this contract ... I would have been concerned about it."
As for Tiahrt's vow to seek a review, Shelby said, "The Pentagon and the Air Force have made their decision and I think it was for the right reasons and I'll stand by that."
The decision was sure to result in a debate, with a formal protest also possible, said defense consultant Jim McAleese.
The tanker deal will give EADS a huge boost in the U.S. defense market, making it the second biggest foreign supplier behind Britain's BAE Systems, analysts said.
"We are so very excited about having the opportunity to help the Air Force acquire the most modern and capable refueling tanker -- a tanker assembled in America -- by Americans," said Alabama Republican Rep. Jo Bonner.
Bonner represents Mobile, Alabama, where assembly work on the aircraft will be done, although it will largely be constructed in France at facilities of EADS' unit Airbus.
Airbus, with large facilities in Toulouse, is Boeing's arch-rival in the global commercial airliner business.
Wichita's Rep. Tiahrt said, "I am deeply troubled by the Air Force's decision to award the KC-X tanker to a French company that has never built a tanker in its history.
"We should have an American tanker built by an American company with American workers. I cannot believe we would create French jobs in place of Kansas jobs."
Tiahrt said he will seek to have the decision reviewed by both the Pentagon and Congress. "At the end of this laborious process, I hope the Air Force reverses its decision."
Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats, along with six other lawmakers from the state said in a joint statement: "We are outraged that this decision taps European Airbus and its foreign workers to provide a tanker to our American military.
"We will be asking tough questions about the decision to outsource this contract. We look forward to hearing the Air Force's justification."
(Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Richard Chang)
I don’t mean this rudely .. good for you but I could care less about your stock. America first.
Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa, editing by Richard Chang
Ex-Boeing CFO pleads guilty in Air Force procurement scandalThe former chief financial officer for Boeing pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to illegally helping Darleen Druyun, the Air Force's former No. 2 procurement official, land a lucrative job with the company.
Michael Sears, 57, who along with Druyun was fired by Boeing in late 2003, pleaded guilty to a single count of aiding and abetting illegal employment negotiations in United States District Court in Alexandria, Va. Sears, who will be sentenced in January, could receive up to five years in prison.
"Michael Sears' secret employment negotiations with a senior Air Force official struck at the heart of the integrity of the multibillion-dollar defense acquisition process. Conflict-of-interest rules are important and protect the public interests," U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty said in a prepared statement.
"This is the largest corruption case by defense contractors our nation has seen in decades," said Keith Ashdown, vice president of policy at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based interest group. "Sears' plea confirms that Boeing knowingly set out to make billions off of the illegal acts of a few."
In court papers, Sears admitted meeting with Druyun to discuss employment with Boeing while she was still serving as one of the Air Force's top contracting officials. In that job, Druyun held enormous influence over the service's nearly $30 billion annual procurement budget, and was key negotiator in a controversial deal for the Air Force to lease tanker aircraft from Boeing.
Druyun admitted in federal court last month to favoring Boeing in at least four contract negotiations, including the tanker deal. She said she felt indebted to the company for giving her daughter, her son-in-law and herself jobs. Druyun was sentenced to nine months in prison.
Last week, the Pentagon announced it would review all contracts Druyun oversaw from 1993 to 2002 as the Air Force's principal deputy assistant for acquisition and management. The Defense Science Board also will conduct a review of the military's acquisition systems to determine if there are sufficient checks and balances in place. Sears admitted to not only meeting with Druyun while she oversaw Boeing contracts, but attempting to conceal those meetings from the Pentagon and federal investigators. Court documents show top Boeing's executives discussed recruiting Druyun at an Oct. 2002 meeting.
"They were very interested in Druyun's considerable talent and experience. They also discussed the fact that they did not want her to join Lockheed Martin, Boeing's primary competitor," court documents stated.
On Oct. 17, 2002, Sears and Druyun secretly met in a private conference room at Orlando International Airport, where Druyun had flown to attend an industry conference, to discuss her future plans. Druyun told Sears she had reached an agreement to accept a job with Lockheed Martin, but said she would consider an offer from Boeing, court documents showed.
The documents indicated that at the meeting, Druyun and Sears also discussed cost, delivery and schedule delays on the Air Force's F/A-22 fighter aircraft program, on which Boeing played a role as a subcontractor.
Druyun and Sears would later agree via e-mail to tell investigators they had not discussed her potential employment until early November, after Druyun had signed a letter recusing herself from all Boeing matters before the Air Force.
In subsequent e-mails and phone conversations, Sears implored Druyun to "hang tough" as investigators began questioning her about how she got a $250,000 a year job managing Boeing's missile defense programs.
Build it in China and make everybody happy.
Congress sold American workers out for one dinky plant in Alabama-Sessions is a ....I can’t say it. This is a real slap in the face. Of course, a Republican the Alabama Senator was on Lou Dobbs defending this awful decision.
>>>Best Bid being awarded to a foreign nation on a security project is the equivalent to Bernard Shaw saying he needed to remain impartial with the info he had while at the El Rahseedd hotel.
Really over the top there. It’s not a spy plane. It’s a tanker, a flying gas can. The Airbus proposal carries more fuel so can refuel more aircraft and stay on station longer then the Boeing. Keeping the warplanes in the air is “security” too.
Pinfire revolvers will be our next official sidearms.
LOL, Yep just wonderful. You would have better results using it as a club :)
The Airbus proposal carries more fuel so can refuel more aircraft and stay on station longer then the Boeing. Keeping the warplanes in the air is “security” too.
Then build two of them and employ even more US Citizens.
Or have the US manufacturer resubmit with a plane that can hold the adnl 20%.
And it’s likely that the KC-45 won’t be using the CF6-80 variant now used, but likely a modified GENx engine. This will lower fuel burn, which improves the range over the current A330-200F.
I’m from Washington, and I’m kinda in your state of mind (although we’re moving soon to Oregon.) If I had stayed here I was going to make it my life’s goal to UNSEAT PATTY MURRAY!!!! Maybe, maybe, this will happen.
Maybe next is switching to Roamainan AKs.
We should have seen what Iran could offer.
Fewer Muslims there than in France.
Who was that Senator that brags that he put the kibosh on the Boeing deal?
Was it John Kerry who was brought up in France?
Oh yeah, that guy that was a war prisoner and says he's a conservative.
But wouldn't that increase the burden on the very busy GENx line? Perhaps it could use an engine very similar to the bleed air version developed for the 747-800.
This plane will be built in France and flown to Alabama to have the decals put on. That tells you everything you need to know about who is really building this plane.
Can you imagine a few years down the road when another Chirac is in charge of France and tells the US “no more tanker spare parts until you withdraw from ...”
Or maybe the .43 Egyptian.
Who the hell are these morons making these decisions?
Again fewer Muzzies there than in France!
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