Looks like the Air Force picked a French tanker over the Boeing alternative to replace the aging KC 135 fleet:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblog...nch_tanker.asp

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

Good for the Grumman Iron Works! Looks like it was a fair competition and the US Airforce is going to get a better airplane out of it. I applaud the Airforce for letting the competition choose.....not the politics.

As much as I hate to get involved in politics but I truly believe that this was a wrong decision. Dollar value is dropping everyday, people are having a hard time living in many of our states. Boeing is an outstanding company with longest history in aviation plus they already have the experience of building a tanker which neither Airbus or NG has had. Not to mention it is an American airplane. Do you guys really think that our AirForce looks much better with a French Tanker? Do you have any idea how many of our professionals can potentially loose their jobs! Maybe this is part of making the European economy better type of thing. I am not really sure what's happening in the Greatest Country in the World! I am just hoping that something starts changing and we get back on track!

Here you go:

Washington D.C. – U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the Ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, today released the following statement regarding the Air Force’s decision to award the KC-45A tanker contract to Northop Grumman-European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS):
“This is a blow and a disservice to the American defense industrial base so vital to our national security interests. This U.S. taxpayer-funded contract was conceded to a socialistic system utilizing a heavily subsidized bid that valued an undercut price ahead of thousands of American workers already struggling to pay their mortgages and send their children to college.
“The hardworking aerospace men and women, and U.S. taxpayers, are the losers in this decision that benefited the treasuries of European governments.
“These are the same European governments who are unwilling to support us in the Global War on Terror and over the last few months refused to provide even an additional one hundred soldiers apiece for Afghanistan operations. Instead, we have to send 3,200 additional U.S. Marines to Afghanistan while they take $35 billion in American taxpayer contracts. Two-thirds of the foreign countries involved in this deal also fail to spend the minimum of two percent of GDP on defense as required by NATO membership.
“Airbus will tell you that they are creating new jobs in Alabama for final assembly. However, they fail to honestly tell the American people that the vast majority of the jobs required to build these aircraft are actually contained in the thousands of subassemblies that are built overseas.”

I live in Washington State, boeing is livid about this....that said....competition is good...however when it comes to our military arsenal, i think made in america is key....and on this specific deal bottom line, they paid a whole bunch more then they would have with boeing....and for the difference, we must wonder what did they get that was worth so much more per plane...anyways....i hope they do thorough inspections of those aircrafts for bugs LOL

I don't know how much I want to step into this. Boeing's computerized technical data is not up to the standards that it should be. I have to rely on it. Boeing is a POS airplane company IMO.

With this being said, I don't feel to good about using a French plane. For one thing, our adversaries will be able to get ahold of the tech data and that is never a good thing for us.

What an utter tragedy.

Duncan Hunter was running for president this year, its too bad I missed the primaries because I would have voted for him, or Allan Keys.

The job of the military and the Air Force is to protect America. The NUMBER ONE factor that goes into making a Strong country is its economy. Even if it costs more to give Boeing the contracts, $35,000,000,000 (wow)- the Air Force is still investing the money right back into the American economy, strengthening America, paying Americans. I would bet that there are people ready to fist fight over this. I would love to know who is responsible for it. America is in a time of war. We recovered from the great depression in part because of the fiscal stimulation caused by our military production.

Does anyone have any more links on this stuff, I want to look into it more. Who on earth is responsible for this travesty? Bush? Cheney? The Air Force Chiefs?

Get this, Boeing needed to build a new plant a while back and John McCain told them that if they did not build it in his home state, Arkansas that he would make life hell for Boeing. Boeing DIDN'T built it in Arkansas. I think I am going to be a Boeing fan for life and now McCain has made good on his promise again like he did in 2001 when he messed around in the legalities of the no-bid contract the AF had going with Boeing. McCain has it out for Boeing and to me it seems that he is responsible.

Well it should force us to be a better competitor. I think it sucks we gave the contract to a French based company. If you look out our own administration they might as well be selling us to the Saudis.

If we cant make the best military equipment then we should buy it. If American companies can not be more creative then they need to step up. Its this same logic that almost got me killed in Iraq. I was riding around in Hummers with NO armor protection at all except plywood and sandbags that we could rig up.

If you are a professional soldier and you are tasked for a certain mission you will select the best equipment for that mission. Often times American made equipment is not the best for the job. Take a look at the weapons in use by any of the Special Ops community.

Unfortunately in American if you are a true trail blazer you are often put out of business or held back by the larger companies. We are no longer a nation of innovation as we once were. Remember its all about getting a 6 year college degree to work a 9-5 go nowhere job.

Hey 50% they should promote us to Generals. Myself I am not going the Senior NCO route; I think I'll switch over to officer soon.

There is a lot of great equipment out there that the US Military does not use. Good to know I am not the only one who feels the same. I hear you on the OPSEC issues but seriously on most military equipment with the internet you can find out all sorts of things.

You know that in deals like this the 'specifications' may not even play a part. To me its got to be vastly political when it comes to such an ugly decision like this.

Politics and soldiering don't mix well. Yes there are probably more reasons then we understand behind this deal. Our funding for this war has been very different then wars in the past. This could also have something to do with this.

"Beware of the military industrial complex..." Dwight D. Eisenhower

The lack of understanding of history is why we face many problems today. If we do not understand the mistakes of our past we will be doomed to repeat them.

Originally Posted by 50%plane

I don't know how much I want to step into this. Boeing's computerized technical data is not up to the standards that it should be. I have to rely on it. Boeing is a POS airplane company IMO.

With this being said, I don't feel to good about using a French plane. For one thing, our adversaries will be able to get ahold of the tech data and that is never a good thing for us.

I hate to get in to this, however I have several thousand hours in Boeing aircraft (in the Air Force and for an airline) and nothing is as good as a Boeing. It a sad world to have a yellow belly French tanker in the Air Force inventory.

"If it ain't Boeing I'm not going"

Originally Posted by Stainless Skills

Get this, Boeing needed to build a new plant a while back and John McCain told them that if they did not build it in his home state, Arkansas that he would make life hell for Boeing. Boeing DIDN'T built it in Arkansas. I think I am going to be a Boeing fan for life and now McCain has made good on his promise again like he did in 2001 when he messed around in the legalities of the no-bid contract the AF had going with Boeing. McCain has it out for Boeing and to me it seems that he is responsible.

"Who on earth is responsible for this travesty? Bush? Cheney? The Air Force Chiefs?"

Sen MaCain who's office has ties to AirBus (Scarbus) is responsible.

Sen MaCain is from Arizona not Arkansas.

I'm not particularly happy about this, either, but it is worth noting that winning proposal is for a joint Northrop/EADS airplane to be built in Mobile, Alabama. I'm sure it didnt make financial sense to build Airbuses in Mobile, so that concession, to keep the assembly jobs in the USA, has already been made. It's unfortunate that all the economic activity from the components is basically lost...and it's also unfortunate that we've given responsibility for something as critical as the tanker fleet over to a company based in our most unreliable ally, which is also a country on an inevitable path to becoming a Muslim nation during this century.

In any case, it looks like this is already a political hot potato. The deal may not even happen as it is currently written.