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"Mr. President, I wish to share a few other thoughts [...] Earlier, one of our colleagues, Senator Murray, for whom I have great admiration, I understand told NPR: All things considered, I have stood on the line in Everett, Washington, where we have thousands of workers who go to work every day to build these planes. I would challenge anybody to tell me that they stood on a line in Alabama and seen anybody build anything. [...] DOD’s latest acquisition strategy for the KC-X aerial refueling tanker replacement competition is, unfortunately, deeply flawed. Instead of the modern, multirole, game-changing, transformational...

Airbus/Northrop Threat Revealing by George Landrith Human Events, 12/04/2009 The Air Force has issued a preliminary Request for Proposal (RFP) specifying how companies can bid on the $35 billion contract to build the next fleet of air refueling tankers. A final RFP is due out soon. The two bidders reviewing the preliminary RFP are Chicago-based Boeing, and a team made up of Airbus, based in Toulouse France, and Northrop Grumman, based in Los Angeles. Boeing has proposed building a tanker on its medium-sized B-767 commercial jetliner platform, while Airbus and Northrop have proposed building a tanker on Airbus’s larger A-330...

Northrop Grumman’s potential withdrawal from a competition to build Air Force refueling aircraft would be a “blow” to the program, according to the House’s top defense appropriator. “I can’t imagine they can do it without competition,” said Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. Murtha said he is scheduled to meet with Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter on Thursday to discuss several issues, including Northrop’s threat to pull out of the tanker competition. If Northrop pulls out, Boeing would be the only company bidding for the contract. That would run afoul of congressional preferences for...

Northrop Grumman has warned it won't bid for the massive Air Force refueling tanker program unless the Pentagon's draft request for proposals is rewritten. Northrop CEO Wes Bush wrote to Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter on Tuesday that since the Pentagon has declined to alter the request for proposals (RFP), "I must regrettably inform you that, absent a responsive set of changes in the final RFP, Northrop Grumman has determined that it cannot submit a bid." ~snip~ Bloomberg News quoted an e-mail from Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman stating that "the Department regrets that Northrop Grumman and Airbus have taken themselves...

Tanker Wars: Round 3 Starts by Jed Babbin, Human Events, 11/19/2009 Last year, the Government Accountability Office overturned the Air Force’s decision to buy the replacement for its aged KC-135 airborne tanker from the European Air Defense Systems (EADS)-Northrop Grumman consortium that offered the French Airbus-330. The GAO’s decision, as I wrote extensively then, was based in large part on the Airbus’s physical limitations. The aircraft simply cannot fly the tanker mission in accordance with longstanding Air Force requirements (read why). The Air Force’s decision to buy the Airbus despite those failures was such an incident of intellectual whoredom that...

Northrop Grumman Corp. on Wednesday suggested it could file a lawsuit or even withdraw from the U.S. Air Force tanker contest because of its concerns over the fairness of the competition. Top Northrop officials said they were working with the Pentagon to address their objections to the Air Force's draft Request for Proposals, released to potential bidders Sept. 25.

Experts : Tanker dual buy sensible Sunday, August 09, 2009 By GEORGE TALBOT Political Editor Forget the money. Forget the politics. The U.S. Air Force could gain a major strategic advantage by splitting its contract for aerial refueling tankers, according to military experts. A proposed "dual buy" would replace the Air Force's existing fleet of KC-135 tankers with two different aircraft, giving greater flexibility to war planners and speeding the retirement of the Eisenhower-era KC-135s, analysts said. Advertisement The compromise would also end a political stalemate between rival bidders Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., spreading jobs across a broader...

July 29, 2009: Saudi Arabia has ordered another three Airbus A330 tankers, for aerial refueling and carrying cargo. The Airbus MRTT is based on the twin engine Airbus 330-300, which normally sells for $160 million each. The 233 ton MRTT carries 111 tons of fuel, plus 43 tons of cargo (26 pallets).

Dicks says tanker contract won't be splitAssociated Press Published: Thursday, May 7, 2009 TACOMA -- Congressman Norm Dicks says a proposal to split an air tanker contract is dead. Dicks told The News Tribune of Tacoma that a key congressman, John Murtha of Pennsylvania, has agreed not to split the contract between Boeing and a European competitor. The Air Force spending is part of a bill being considered by the House Appropriations Committee. The tanker contract for 179 planes is worth $35 billion.

A proposal by U.S. Rep. John Murtha to split the Air Force tanker contract between Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. will not be included in this year's supplemental war spending bill, according to the congressman.fileRep. John Murtha Murtha, D-Pa., the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees defense spending, said he was abandoning his push to add language to the bill that would have directed the Pentagon to buy planes from both manufacturers. Murtha "remains committed to working out a plan that gets tankers in the air faster," a spokesman said today. He said Murtha intends to...

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, signaled Tuesday that he is giving serious consideration to a proposal that would split the lucrative contract to build the Air Force's next fleet of aerial refueling tankers between the two rivals vying for the work. Inouye, who also chairs the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, told reporters that he plans to hold subcommittee hearings on the proposal, which has been publicly pushed by key House Democrats but soundly rejected by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, the European consortium behind Airbus, won the $35 billion deal last year to build 179...

<p>VALDEZ -- The U.S. Coast Guard barred a tanker from taking on a load of oil at Valdez last week after cracks were found in the ship.</p> <p>The 24-year-old S/R Baytown belongs to SeaRiver Maritime Inc., a Houston-based subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp.</p>

CQ's Josh Rogin reports: The White House has given the Pentagon guidance to delay procurement of aerial refueling tankers by five years and cancel plans for a new long-range bomber, according to three sources close to the discussions. No final decisions have been made, and the recommendations are part of negotiations between the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department over possible budget trade-offs this year, the sources said. The guidance represents two of the offset options that OMB gave the Pentagon last month regarding the fiscal 2010 Defense budget request. If the guidance survives the internal budget...

As the crew of the SKS Satilla battled water gushing through its punctured hull, emergency workers Monday succeeded in emptying the 900-foot oil tanker of half its cargo of 40 million gallons of crude oil. A second ship was sent to the scene 65 miles south of Galveston to siphon out the remaining 20 million gallons before the tanker is towed to port for repairs. Coast Guard Lt. Tim Tilghman said the ship’s tanks should be emptied by early today. He called the operation “extraordinarily difficult” but added that the ship is not in danger of sinking. “The ship is...

With an alarming number of tankers and cargo ships getting hijacked on the high seas, the nation's maritime academies are offering more training to merchant seamen in how to fend off attacks from pirates armed not with cutlasses and flintlocks but automatic weapons and grenade launchers. Colleges are teaching students to fishtail their vessels at high speed, drive off intruders with high-pressure water hoses and illuminate their decks with floodlights. Anti-piracy training is not new. Nor are the techniques. But the lessons have taken on new urgency—and more courses are planned—because of the record number of attacks worldwide in 2008...

LONDON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said on Wednesday it appeared pirates had tried to attack one of its big military oil tankers. A security team aboard the vessel opened fire on two small boats near Somalia after they ignored warnings and pursued the ship, a U.S. Fifth Fleet spokesman said. "From all appearances it does look like it was a pirate attack and the incident is currently under investigation," he said by telephone from Bahrain. He said the Military Sealift Command (MSC) oil tanker, the John Lenthall, which usually carries a range of fuels for the U.S. armed forces,...

The Pentagon's top weapons buyer said the proposed aerial refueling tankers from both Northrop Grumman and Boeing were "technically outstanding" but differed by almost $3 billion on price. John Young, the undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in an interview at the Pentagon yesterday that under the tanker proposal from Northrop Grumman and its partner European Aeronautic Defence & Space, developing the first 68 aircraft would have cost $12.5 billion, compared with $15.4 billion under Boeing's plan.

The Pentagon has cancelled a defence contract that would have secured 11,000 British jobs following fierce political lobbying by American companies. Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, won a contract to supply the United States Air Force with refuelling tankers earlier this year. The wings for all 179 planes would have been built in the UK in a deal worth over £4 billion to the British economy. Defence analysts said that the Pentagon seemed to be succumbing to political pressure to protect American jobs. Boeing, the giant US-based aerospace company, lost the contract to Airbus and is believed to have spent...

The U.S. Department of Defense announced this morning that it is terminating the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition, and has notified Congress and the competing industry teams of the move. Halting the current competition can be viewed as a win for Boeing, which complained that the quick pace of the recompete didn't give it enough time to substantively change its proposal. The deferment would allow the company to rebuild its proposal strategy around a larger aircraft like the 777.

THE STRIKE by 27,000 Boeing machinist workers may not directly influence who finally wins the Air Force tanker refueling contract, but it surely won't help the Boeing case. As the Pentagon reconsiders the Air Force decision to give the potentially $40 billion contract to the Northrop Grumman-EADS partnership that would assemble Airbus tankers in Mobile, Boeing now must try to make the case that it should have won the contract. And it has to make the case at the same time that its biggest union has shut down production of all of Boeing's commercial airplanes. The union's issues include job...

Why Block the Boeing Tanker? by Jed Babbin Posted 08/22/2008 For all the Pentagon’s protestations -- and harsh words from the Government Accountability Office and Congress -- the promise of a real competition between Boeing and Northrop-Grumman/EADS for a new generation air refueling tanker is apparently being broken. The Pentagon, based on its public announcements and all other reports, is apparently in the process of rewriting the terms of the competition to eliminate any chance of buying the tanker the warfighters need. On June 18, the Government Accountability Office shot down the Air Force decision to award the contract to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Boeing Co. is considering bailing out of a politically charged competition for a $35 billion contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force, if it does not receive an additional four months from the Pentagon to assemble its offer. ADVERTISEMENT The aerospace manufacturer said Friday it also may file a protest on the final bids request -- expected to be released early next week by the Pentagon -- which could further delay an award. No final decision will be made until Boeing has a chance to review the final bids request, said company spokesman Daniel...

The US Department of Defense's goal to avoid further delays and award the KC-X tanker contract before year-end faces a key new challenge. Although Boeing had the option to boycott the revived competition, the company has instead chosen a strategy that may force the DoD to extend the deadline for revised proposals. Boeing has hinted that it may propose a larger aircraft than the 767-200ERX offered in the original competition, saying it is looking at "configuration options" for its latest bid. Boeing's options include new tanker versions of the 767-400ER and the 777-200LR. At the same time, Boeing officials also...

Word that Boeing is strongly considering a “no bid” position for the next round of the U.S. Air Force refueling tanker competition is spreading only two days after the Pentagon released the revised KC-X draft request for proposals (RFP). Multiple sources familiar with Boeing’s internal discussions say company officials are strongly considering the option of not submitting a proposal as the company’s Integrated Defense Systems sector tries to respond to the draft RFP within the government’s speedy timeline. Comments are due this week. The move would leave the Defense Dept. without a competition for the KC-135 tanker replacement. A demand...

August 08, 2008, 7:00 a.m. Testing GatesTanker re-bid. By Merrill Cook A recent report by the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) devastatingly critiques one of the Pentagon’s critical procurement processes. The July 2008 report demonstrates that the government botched contracts for an urgently needed new generation of aerial refueling tankers not just once, but twice. With years of delay and billions in budget overruns in many of the Department of Defense’s top programs, many observers are asking just how deep the Pentagon’s procurement problems run. They want to know what the Pentagon’s new chief, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will...

Deadline to submit bid is just two months away WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Wednesday requested new bids on a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers, but Boeing supporters on Capitol Hill complained that the revised criteria seem to favor the rival European airplane. [...] “It’s obviously stacked against Boeing,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based think tank that focuses on national security and defense issues. “It appears to favor a larger aircraft in a way the original did not. But the timeline doesn’t give Boeing an opportunity to prepare a bid for a...

Let's Solve the Tanker Mess by Gen. John Handy Most of us in the Air Force mobility community were a bit surprised by the decision to buy the quite large Airbus-330 tanker instead of the smaller Boeing 767 tanker. But the real shock was in the unusually harsh language used by the Government Accountability Office in overturning that decision. It was the harshest language used to overturn an action by the Air Force that I have read in my entire career. In that career -- spanning 39 years in the Air Force -- I was fortunate enough to have been...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced Wednesday that Northrop Grumman and Boeing will have to submit revised proposals for the Air Force’s highly contested aerial refueling tanker program. The Pentagon chief's decision comes after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) upheld Boeing's protest of the Air Force's decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS North America, the parent company of Boeing rival Airbus. “I have concluded that the contract cannot be awarded,” Gates said at a Pentagon news conference. Northrop Grumman won the heated competition on Feb. 29, but is currently under a stop-work order. The decision means...

The Pentagon's announcement Wednesday that it will rebid the Air Force tanker contract was initially greeted as good news by most supporters of Boeing's bid for the $35 billion job. But U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, emerged from a Defense Department meeting Wednesday afternoon convinced that the Pentagon is fixing the new contest in favor of Northrop Grumman and partner European Aeronautic Defence & Space, parent of Airbus. He said he learned from Pentagon acquisition chief John J. Young Jr., the man controlling the rebid, that the revised contract criteria will give credit to the larger Northrop-EADS plane for having...

Some Senators are being quoted that the Air Force tanker project that Boeing lost will be rebid. Freepmail me for details, or wait about 20 minutes for general announcement.

Brownback, Roberts, Tiahrt Introduce KC-X Tanker Recompete Legislation Bill to require DoD to recompete KC-X Tanker contract under fair, open process Thursday, June 26, 2008 WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) today introduced the KC-X Tanker Recompete Act. Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-KS) introduced companion legislation in the House. The legislation would prohibit use of any funds by the Department of Defense on the KC-Tanker unless the DoD chooses to outright award the KC-X tanker to Boeing or decides to fairly recompete the KC-X contract using the KC-135 criteria. "The fastest way for the Air Force...

To Darleen Druyun, wherever you are now... your name may soon no longer be tied to the most egregious procurement process in the history of the US Air Force's incredibly protracted bid for a new aerial tanker. It seems the latest attempt may just have surpassed your 2003 scandal. According to the unedited Government Accountability Office report on the USAF's recent KC-X bid, released this week, the Air Force took its level of bungling to new heights in awarding an initial $40 billion contract to a partnership comprised of EADS and Northrop Grumman. Overall, the GAO said, the Air Force...

The news today that the Government Accountability Office has upheld Boeing's protest of an Air Force tanker contract award given to Northrop Grumman and EADS means that the $40 billion deal remains in doubt. Which is very good news for the campaign coffers of members of Congress. The Boeing vs. Northrop Grumman fight, which has played out publicly in dueling lobbying campaigns, hasn't just pitted two aerospace behemoths against each other. It's also been a matchup of two of the most generous political donors on Capitol Hill. The Boeing Political Action Committee has made just over $1 million worth of...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force told Boeing Co (NYSE:BA - News) it had fully met a key requirement in competing for a $35 billion aerial refueling program but then changed its evaluation without telling the company, government auditors said on Wednesday. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an extended explanation of its decision last week to uphold Boeing's protest against the contract award to Northrop Grumman

WASHINGTON: John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is fending off charges that he pushed the U.S. Air Force into a faulty $35 billion deal for midair refueling planes. Democrats weighed in after the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, found last week that the air force had made "significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition" between Boeing and a combination of Northrop Grumman and European Aerospace & Defense Systems, or EADS, which was awarded the contract. The Democratic National Committee accused McCain of "mimicking" EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus,...

Too Big, Too Heavy by Jed Babbin, Human Events Posted: 03/24/2008 The mission of the US Air Force is to fly and to fight. Everyone in the Air Force’s job falls into one of three categories: to do the flying and fighting, to command those who do, or to support them. Part of supporting the warriors is to buy the best aircraft to accomplish the mission at lowest risk. Which is why the Air Force’s decision to buy urgently-needed tanker aircraft from the Northrop Grumman – EADS consortium must be reversed. That decision -- announced on February 29 -- could...

The month of June has been one that EADS will be hoping ends quickly. Starting with the arrest of Noel Forgeard, former co-CEO, the stock being branded a liability; by Joe Campbell and then just this week the arrest of another executive, the news that the US GAO had sided with Boeing in its protest of the KC-X tanker award will have left the European aerospace company reeling. You can read the GAO press release by clicking right here. From the very outset of the annoucement back in February 2008, Boeing’s view and position surrounding the protest had such conviction...

WASHINGTON, June 19 (UPI) -- The finding by U.S. government auditors that the Air Force used a flawed process in awarding a controversial $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers to a European-led consortium, rather than to American aerospace giant Boeing, is a victory for the vociferous "buy American" lobby in Congress. And the news is also another body blow for the Air Force, following the abrupt sacking earlier this month of its civilian and military chiefs. The bid process, begun after a lengthy corruption probe ended the service's previous effort to replace its half-century-old fleet of aerial refueling tankers,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. auditors urged the Air Force Wednesday to rerun its marathon, $35 billion competition for refueling aircraft, upholding a protest by losing bidder Boeing Co (BA.N). The Government Accountability Office found the Air Force made "a number of significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition between" Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N). "We therefore sustained Boeing's protest," Michael Golden, head of the a GAO bid protest unit, said in a statement. Northrop was teamed with EADS, parent of rival passenger-jet maker Airbus. EADS (EAD.PA) had no immediate comment. --snip-- The...

<p>WASHINGTON — Congressional investigators have granted Boeing's protest of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co.</p>

Mobile’s hopes for an aircraft assembly plant just took a serious hit. As shown in the latest edition of Lagniappe, Boeing claimed the Air Force made math errors in their CNBC is reporting the U.S. General Accounting Office has also found that to be the case and called them “significant errors.” Boeing (NYSE:BA) is trading sharply higher on the news, while Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has taken a slight hit. Although the Air Force doesn’t have to abide by the GAO’s ruling, the likely outcome is for another round of bidding for the tanker contract experts say.

The U.S. Air Force has conceded that Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) Co's proposed KC-767 aerial refueling tanker would cost less over time than the winning plane offered by Northrop Grumman Corp (nyse: NOC - news - people ) and its European subcontractor EADS, Boeing told auditors reviewing its protest against the Air Force decision. News of Air Force errors in calculating the life cycle costs of the competing bids, which were also confirmed by Northrop, comes as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) prepares to rule by June 19 on the Boeing protest.

GAO review of tanker deal unlikely to produce truce Both sides have ways to fight on By JOELLE TESSLER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Northrop Grumman Corp. and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. beat out The Boeing Co. to win a $35 billion order from the Air Force three months ago. Yet the contract to build 179 aerial refueling tankers is hardly a done deal. The surprise selection of a team that includes EADS -- the parent company of The Boeing Co.'s rival Airbus -- has ignited a backlash among unions representing Boeing workers, lawmakers from Washington, Kansas...

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates summarily fired the top civilian and military Air Force officials last week, the reason he gave was a grave failure of leadership with respect to that service’s nuclear missions. The low priority assigned by the Pentagon to its nuclear stewardship responsibilities is systemic and acute. Consequently, this act of accountability is both warranted and a needed wake-up call to all the armed forces. As it happens, there is another ground on which the dismissal of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne could be justified. He was specifically brought in to clean up Air Force procurement, but...

Northrop Grumman official said that the construction of a new Air Force tanker in Mobile, Ala., could have an economic impact in south Mississippi of more than $12 million annually. Leroy Barnidge, vice president for state and local government relations in Melbourne, Fla., where Northrop's tanker program headquarters is located, spoke Wednesday to a Pascagoula civic club. Northrop-EADS plans an aircraft assembly center in Mobile estimated to cost $600 million and create more than 1,000 jobs. If the Northrop and EADS North America's joint tanker contract survives a protest by rival Boeing Co., Barnidge said a couple of hundred new...

Boeing protested. The GAO has until June 19 to review the contract selection. They'll most likely approve USAF's selection, What happens after that is anybody's guess. Howls from the Washington and Kansas congressional delegations, certainly. Political accusations between Obama and McCain, probably. when do we find out if the USAF are able to stick with the original decision to buy the European designed tanker ? Will true democracy and freedom of choice prevail or will we see a U turn of all that is supposed to be good in the USA.

A labor union of technical engineers issued an 11-page “white paper” today ripping the USAF tanker contract award to Northrop Grumman and the KC-30 over the Boeing KC-767. The two page press release summarizes the white paper findings. The press release focuses entirely on EADS, parent of Airbus and maker of the A330-200 on which Northrop’s offering of the KC-30 is based. Northrop’s identified as a “minority” partner. (During a conference several months ago, Northrop acknowledged that about 50% of the contract revenues flow to EADs/Airbus. Engines, in this case provided by GE (an American company), typically represent about 20%...

Loren Thompson, the well-regarded defense analyst with the Lexington Institute think tank, has taken heat from Boeing backers over his reports about the Air Force tanker decision. But in his latest report, Thompson echoes many of Boeing's concerns about the decision.

Not all quite on the tankern front. “US GAO begins hearing on Northrop/EADS tanker deal�http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0539240420080505 “A GAO spokesman confirmed the start of the hearing, but gave no details. The congressional agency, which reviews contract disputes, is due to rule on the case by June 19. The hearing includes lawyers from Boeing, Northrop, and the Air Force, with three GAO officials hearing the various arguments, according to three sources familiar with the case, who said it could last all week. “This hearing will go on for days and days,� said one of the sources, who asked not to be named. “Each...

Highlighting reasons the U.S. Air Force selected the KC-45 Tanker as best for our men and women in uniform. WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria. Despite this fact, the losing bidder wants the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman. Starting today and regularly in the coming weeks, “Why We Won� will provide detailed examples of why Northrop Grumman was selected, drawing...