by Aamer Madhani
After being debriefed by the Air Force today, Chicago-based Boeing Co. officials are sounding like they are going to protest the service’s decision to pass them up on the $35 billion contract to overhaul the Air Force’s ageing aerial refueling tanker fleet.
Last week, the Air Force awarded the mammoth contract to a consortium of Northrop Grumman and the French-owned European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.
Boeing met today for several hours with top Air Force acquisition officials. Company officials will be spending the weekend pondering whether to file a formal protest—something that would further delay the long languishing project.
"While we are grateful for the timely debriefing, we left the room with significant concerns about the process in several areas, including program requirements related to capabilities, cost and risk; evaluation of the bids and the ultimate decision," Mark McGraw, a Boeing vice president overseeing the tanker project said in a statement. "What is clear now is that reports claiming that the Airbus offering won by a wide margin could not be more inaccurate."
The original contract was awarded to Boeing in 2003, but was later annulled. An ethics scandal with the project led to jail time for a top Boeing official and a former Air Force official accused of giving the company preferential treatment before she was employed by Boeing.
Since the Air Force made the shocking announcement last week, several lawmakers have spoken out against the Air Force’s decision and complained that the service is giving away American jobs to Europe.
The lawmakers, including some with Boeing manufacturing plants in their districts, claim that Boeing and EADS are not competing on a level playing field.
The United State has an ongoing suit against EADS in the World Trade Organization for receiving subsidies from European governments. The European Commission has made similar complaints against Boeing.
Boeing says if it won the contract, the project would support 44,000 jobs, and Northrop-EADS says as many 25,000 jobs will stay in the U.S. under their proposal. None of those jobs, however, are set in stone.
Several Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jack Murtha and Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, have criticized the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain for his role in overturning the original deal. McCain had insisted that the bidding be opened to competition after the ethics violations surfaced.
Now, Boeing has to decide whether or not to stop the deal. They have five days from today to make their decision. A possible consequence of choosing to protest is backlash from European governments who account for a significant portion of their customer base.
"Our plan now is to work through the weekend to come to a decision on our course of action early next week," McGraw saud. "It will be a very rigorous and deliberative process to ensure we're balancing the needs of the warfighter with our desire to be treated fairly. For decades Boeing has been recognized as a defense company that never takes lightly protests of our customers' decisions."
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Comments
Every goverment contract should go through competitive bidding. Period. McCain stood up for the taxpayer and insured that this one did so that the biggest porker in the House in 2007, Murtha, couldn't further line his pockets with the taxpayers' money.
Northrup Grumman is an American company based in Los Angeles. Two people from the previous agreement are already in jail so that should tell you how legitimate it was.
CREW has praised McCain for stopping this bad deal and it's just the latest example of how he's looking out for us taxpayers in Washington.
Posted by: Jeff | March 7, 2008 6:27 PM
I don't agree with the critics of this deal that say, on ideological grounds, that Airbus gets 'govmint' subsidies, and therefore on economic theory we should not be awarding the consortium this contract.
Why not benefit from a French taxpayer subsidized bonanza?
Also, Reich Wing; Get over hating the French. Are you mad because they were correct on the contrived Iraq invasion?
Let's see; The French are independent, proud of their culture, and resist the influence of outside powers.
Sound familiar?
BTW, just the other day an A320, I think, was hit with a huge wind sheer on landing somewhere. The right wing actually hit the runway, but the pilot was able to get the ship back in the air, circle and land. Sounds like AB can build robust aircraft.
Also, the USAF and Marines have bought foreign designs in the past. Hawker Harrier and Canberra bomber.(Became U2 not the rock group)
Posted by: C.Morris | March 7, 2008 7:14 PM
C Morris I was gonna make a similar comment but you layed things out rather well. That A320 footage was really something to see. now that is one hell of a pilot!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | March 7, 2008 7:37 PM
C. Morris, we're in complete agreement on this. It's not the "reich wing" that's attacking this deal, either. It's Rahm Emmanuel, Jack Murtha and Pelosi who are all mad that they won't be getting their boodle from Boeing.
Posted by: Jeff | March 7, 2008 7:46 PM
Wow, check this out. Note when he hits the gas. That's real power.
http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/010054.html
Sidelite;
My parents, returning from England in '86 were on a Brit Air 747. They came over the ice cap, then landed at Vancouver BC in a heavy fog. They were experienced flyers, and Dad is an ex Thunderbolt jock.
They hit the runnway so hard, and pitched sideways so violently everyone thought they crashed.
Tough old bird, that old 7-four. One of the final flight tests of every 74 before delivery is to over rotate the take off and drag the tail without suffering any damage.
Posted by: C.Morris | March 7, 2008 9:03 PM
Logic Pris,
Iv'e watched that video a dozen times, still getting the chills. Great pilot, indeed.
Man, just a few years ago and we would have been reading about 200 dead folks.
I remember the 727, a great plane in most respects, was somewhat susceptible to wind shear and vortex performance problems. I think it was at Dallas that the news played a cockpit recording of the pilot trying to talk the plane back to airspeed, ('fly baby, fly!!) but to no avail. Dramatic stuff. It crashed big time.
Posted by: C.Morris | March 7, 2008 9:17 PM
Jeff,
I agree, it's bipartisan bashing that's going on re. the tanker.
I was referring to French bashing in general.
Posted by: C.Morris | March 7, 2008 9:22 PM
C., the Canberra bomber became the B-57, not the U-2. The latter was a Kelly Johnson Lockheed "Skunk Works" design.
Otherwise, excellent post!
Posted by: DaveB | March 7, 2008 9:27 PM
DaveB,
Thanks for the clarification. Old memories, ha ha. Bring out the drool bucket.
Posted by: C.Morris | March 7, 2008 9:36 PM
Yeah, I don't like French bashing, either. Some of their politicians are slimy because they use American bashing as a platform, but the French people I love. I love their food, their attitude toward life, their pride in their nation, almost everything. I love that Sarkozy is president now and they're finally starting to roll back some of the socialist policies that have wrecked their economy.
J'aime le Francais.
Posted by: Jeff | March 7, 2008 10:03 PM
If you watch this video closely, you will see that the aircraft was coming in at about 10 degrees of starboard yawl for several seconds and yet the pilot still tried to touch down.
Also, if you notice the rudder, you will see it in the nuetral position for the entire time it comes into view. To those familiar with flight controls one might wonder why it wasn't in position to correct the yawl.
I'd like to know more about this incident, but from what I saw leading up to the pilot's attempted landing - he shouldn't have tried it.
See for yourself.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/video/?slug=chi-080303germanplane-wn
Posted by: Doug Zook | March 8, 2008 7:58 AM
Yeah, I don't like French bashing, either. Some of their politicians are slimy because they use American bashing as a platform, but the French people I love. I love their food, their attitude toward life, their pride in their nation, almost everything. I love that Sarkozy is president now and they're finally starting to roll back some of the socialist policies that have wrecked their economy.
J'aime le Francais.
Posted by: Jeff | March 7, 2008 10:03 PM
My name is Jean Girard and I am a racing-car driver just like you except I am from Formula Un. I am the greatest one in the whole world. I have been following your career with great interest, Monsieur Bobby.
Ricky Bobby: I can't understand a word you've said the whole time.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Did you eat some peanut butter or something?
Ricky Bobby: Yeah, you sound like a dog with peanut butter on the roof of your mouth
Jean Girard: I think what you are hearing is my accent. I am French.
Ricky Bobby: You say you're French?
Jean Girard: Oui.
[sounds like 'We']
Ricky Bobby: We? No, we are not French. We're American, because you're in America, okay? Greatest country on the planet
Jean Girard: Well, what have you given the world apart from George Bush, Cheerios, and the ThighMaster?
Ricky Bobby: Chinese food?
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Chinese food.
Jean Girard: That's from China.
Ricky Bobby: Pizza.
Jean Girard: Italy.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Chimichanga.
Jean Girard: Mexico.
Ricky Bobby: Really, smarty-pants? What did French land give us?
Jean Girard: We invented democracy, existentialism, and the ménage à trois.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Those are three pretty good things.
Ricky Bobby: Hey.
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Well that last one's pretty cool.
Enjoy your weekend Swamp Things!!!
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | March 8, 2008 8:09 AM
Boeing gets debriefed.
More like, "Boeing gets punked."
I just hope the money that we saved is used to pay down the national debt.
Had we "over-spent" in the US, we would at least have seen some of those dollars returned in tax revenue. Moreso, the communities in which that money was spent would have created more service jobs, resulting in more tax revenue.
Bottom line: The wheel goes 'round in circles when the money is spent in the US. When it's spent overseas, the money is GONE.
Posted by: Bud McFarlin | March 8, 2008 9:08 AM
Logical,
And they invented the French (I mean Freedom!) kiss.
Posted by: C.Morris | March 8, 2008 9:35 PM