Well of course the Bush Administration Air Force gave the bid to foreigners! Why would one want jobs here in the States?
The beauty and benefits of competition.
America keeps going downhill. Some day, we will be at war with China, and we will have to stop fighting int the middle of a skirmish, to buy bullets from them. Anytime the defense of the country is farmed out to anyplace but home, I have to ask congress WTF?
I don’t think this is a bad decision. And it may work to Boeing’s advantage vis-a-vis EADS in the end.
I also would not be surprised if President Obama cancels the contract altogether.
This is great for Mobile and the State of Alamaba.
But I HATE Airbus.
bye bye boeing refueling jets
This just stinks. We should not reward any company that France is involved with. Remember them. The French were involved in the oil for food scheme in Iraq. Then spit in our faces when we ask them for help and they told us that there money was more important than an ally. If any total American aircraft was not good enough, they should have been told to come up with a better plane. Tax payer money should be should only be spent for American jobs.
We all saw how well thats working with the A-380. This story isn't over my friends.
I do not trust to have ANY aircraft being used for OUR Air Force to be made in another country.
What’s to say the following scenario might happen:
In a war with say, China, a few years down the road, we have a flight of these new tankers refueling fighter jets near a war zone.
Somewhere in Beijing, some general enters a code to be sent to a satellite, which then broadcasts a signal, activating a special code hidden deep in the software of all these new tankers...code that was put there by Chinese agents after paying money to certain sympathetic (and greedy) people within Airbus while the jets were being built.
Without warning, every tanker’s jet engines suddenly die in midflight, causing all of them to become huge, heavy gliders which crash, killing our pilots and crew. Those that are on the ground no longer operate, no matter what our maintenance people do. The Chinese have just cut our mid-air refueling capability without too much effort.
Now, I know this argument is very tin-foil hat, but with the way things are...it may be within the realm of possibility.
And yes...I understand that the same scenario might be accomplished on American soil with a disgruntled liberal worker (or workers) doing the same thing, but somehow I think it less likely than what could happen with a foreign-built aircraft.
Never mind the economic standpoint of Boeing’s loss...what about seeing this from a NATIONAL SECURITY standpoint? If it flies for AMERICA, build the WHOLE DARN THING in AMERICA!!!
Someone at the Pentagon needs to get an uppercut from the Clue Fairy.
Heck if that's the only thing the Air Force wanted then stick a bunch of fuel bladders in and a boom on a 747.
Am I to understand that not a one of the planes has flown, even as a modified model for testing?
was gonna post this myself and stir up a hornet’s nest!
Earlier thread didn’t make this so clear. $40 billion going to Euros instead of USA. Seems like poor timing, as if there would be a good time for this kind of thing.
Air Force officials offered few details about why they choose the Northrop-EADS team over Boeing since they have yet to debrief the two companies.
I don't recall hearing of any problems with in-flight refueling which limited our "reach, vigilance or power", even during the height of the Cold War. This decision smacks of typical federal government procurement politics. You know... like spending 30% more for something because the vendor company is minority or woman-owned.
With Northrop based in California, this means 7,500 jobs for California, which will be producing all the parts for these aircraft.
What a shame
What does McCain think about this?
Obama’s made this his issue in the campaign
How stupid is this? If the Republicans had any shred of possibility for winning in November, the Air Force idiots just blew it away. As a result, the Dems will come in and cancel the contract and refuse to build any more planes or spend another dime on the military.
A
Makes me wonder how safe we are with idiots like this running the Air Force. Obama has decreed that he won’t even spend a cent on military research much less equipment and supplies. Aren’t they listening? Is anyone?
Cover your ears. Hillary is going to be all over this like a rash. And McCain can’t defend it.
last I heard, the only thing keeping C-17 alive was Boeing internal funding and lame hopes for foreign sales. AF was showing little willingness to go beyond the 220+ already on order...onsies and twosies (spec ops etc) but about 230 AC total. Editorializing about some "historical partnership" is stretching the point as far as Long Beach is concerned.
Boeing has been happily dismantling the old MDC facility here and developing the real estate. Commercial facilities are gone and only C-17 and some support services remain for the most part. (They did leave the "Home of the Douglas Jets" sign either as a gift or a poke in the eye)
I think the C-17 tooling all belongs to Boeing and once it starts coming down the cost of starting over would buy you a medium sized country.
Profit in large AC is in their sustainment...decades worth of parts for these planes will have to come from Europe. Put another way - building them is the cheap part, sustaining them in service is where the real money is and that money will be going to the existing European suppliers and not to Alabama. Remember that these are based on existing (euro) aircraft and economy does not come from replacing current parts with American substitutes,also, support (actually hanging parts on the AC) will probably take place at AF depots. (Nowhere in the news releases have I seen the phrase "lifetime cost" and that's usually a gov. mantra)
I've read that the RFP drove Boeing to the smaller AC but it's also true that they wanted a new role for 737 specifically and the AF had wanted that plane before. Never saw the spec so that's rumor.
Some of the posts here claim the EADS AC has more capabilities. They both meet the specification but Airbus does it on a bigger platform. Not more capabilities but higher capacity (we are told).
48% of the project went to French Muslims.
Our next move may be to negotiate for Chinese solders ( cheaper) to fight for the US.
House them here and create even more US jobs!