Posted on 03/08/2010 11:28:46 AM PST by jazusamo
Northrop Grumman has decided not to bid in the Air Force refueling tanker contract, leaving Boeing's Everett-built 767 as the sole airplane competing for the $40 billion program.
A person familiar with the details said Northrop will announce its decision after the market closes today...
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
Good news for those of us in the Boeing system.
If they weren’t teamed with eurotrash for this I would be upset. As it is this is a win.
China will be entering the passenger jet market soon; will they have a tanker?
The govt will probably have to rewrite the RFP as they cannot have a sole source for a $40 billion contract.
After flying the Boeing-built KC-135 (modified 707 airframe) for years, I say GOOD on ‘em. The new tanker should be a Boeing; they’re the best, hands down.
Bad news for the Free market and especially for those of us who wanted to see it built in Union Free Alabama
I hear you on the union thing but Boeing has started their non union push, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
I wonder if the bid would have served Grumman for growth or to sustain.
I wonder how much union pressure there was to go Boeing instead of Northrop Grumman. I despise unions and everything they do.
Thanks, I’ve heard others say they were great planes. They’re definitely a proven aircraft for the years they’ve been flying.
You have to remember that Boeing is based in CHICAGO. Additionally, the Machinists Union dominates Everett WA based Boeing where the plane will be assembled. Is there any doubt in anybody’s mind that the combination of Chicago and Union Politics has rigged this thing in favor of Boeing. I feel sorry for the good people of non-union Mobile Alabama who won this competition fair and square and lost it to political scheming.
I agree...Though everything isn’t built here from my understanding, there’s a great deal more of the plane built here and this will keep more money at home as well as more Americans employed.
Union pressure? YA THINK?
The aircraft the N/G bid used was not ideally suited to the job, it was TOO BIG!
Well, why should they? The government has already tossed them aside and picked a different group of campaign contributors to get the spoils from this particular bloated contract.
Just don't make the mistake of thinking there was one scrap of capitalism involved in this entire sordid affair, from any of the parties.
So why doesn’t Boeing agree to build it in Mobile?
Win-win!
I agree...though all of us down here in Mobile (where the plane would be assembled) knew that once the Kenyan got into the WH, that was the end of any fair competition for this contract. What I particularly find galling is all these folks that talk about the plane being foreign built when in fact Boeing outsources as much of the aircraft as Northrup does....however, because of the politics involved in this, the AF does NOT get the best aircraft! They get one built by one pretty corrupt company!
It would be but the non union Boeing plant is in SC and will be for a second 787 assembly line.
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