Hot pursuit of answers on tanker decision

[Chief]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004275871_planed12.html

Washington's congressional delegation is turning up the heat on the Air Force tanker decision to see if Boeing had a fair chance at a $40 billion contract ingloriously lost to overseas competition.

Sen. Patty Murray squares off today with Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. Murray will pursue the national-security risks with having the refueling tankers built by Northrop Grumman and EADS, the European parent of Airbus.In tag-team fashion, Murray picks up after Rep. Norm Dicks' mauling of the Air Force on Monday. He flatly claimed Congress had been misled.

Dicks, vice chair of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said he viewed the process as seriously flawed, and it was entirely appropriate for the Government Accountability Office and Congress to make a final determination about the best replacement option.

Boeing was sufficiently emboldened by the outrage on Capitol Hill to lodge its first protest of a Pentagon decision in three decades. Chairman and CEO Jim McNerney pointed to inconsistency in requirements, cost factors and treatment of Boeing's commercial data.

**SCHNIPP**

Patty has to do something in order to try and salvage her reputation with all of those Boeing Aerospace Union workers who gave her all of that money to finance her campaigns with...

But I don't think there is any reason to change that contract, and Northrup-Grumman is going to proceed to build those thankers. Thew Government has been screwing around with this for years, while the current tanker fleet just gets older and older.

[Waterbuffalo]

Looks like from my reading of the whole story, the Washington State delegation is flying the hell flag up the mast pole because they weren't cautiously taking care of business. In other words, a lot of hot air and no substantive actually making sure Boeing got this contract.

Not if Northrup-Grumman actually got this contract fair and square is another story.

[Chief]

Keep in mind what the history is behind this WB.

Originally, the Air Force awarded the contract straight to Boeing with no competition. The CEO of Boeing was fired over it, and the Democrats raised so much hell that the bidding process was reopend, and DOD was directed my the Democrat Congress to have more than one bidder. Don't you remember all the denouncements of the Bush Administration over that a couple of years ago??

DOD did exactly what Congress ordered, and Northrop-Grumman won the bid fair and square. Now the Democrats want to bitch again, and go for a third round on this??

Keep in mind that the current fleet of tankers is based on the DC-10, and those planes are well past the end of their functional service lives. The Air Force flies the tits off of those tankers, and they can't afford to wait for the next Congress do diddle around with this some more.

The biggest issue here WB is about the labor. Yes, the new tanker will be based on an Airbus, and since the dies and special equipment are in Europe, they will make the shells and ship them to...wait for it....Mississippi for assembly.

Why Mississippi?? Because Northrop-Grumman is going to build a new plant down south for this project, because they can man it with non-union labor.

That fact alone will save billions, and that is why Northrop-Grumman won the contract. That's also why the Washington State Democrats are out screaming bloody murder over this, because all of those unionized Aerospace workers at Boeing have paid Millions in contributions to Politicians, and the Union did not do that to lose a contract this big. I have no doubt that the Boeing unions are raising holy hell, but there's virtually nothing that they can do to change this outcome.

[Waterbuffalo]

you made some very salient points and I don't disagree with them any one bit..

Wonder why the organizers for Boeing's union doesn't go down there and try to unionize the boys down there? Or is it a very non-union state?

Yeah, I'd like to tell them all to stop bellyaching and get on with new things. The 787 is WAY FAR behind schedule, could they not use 1/2 the workers that are building the 767 on that plane? ( Yes, the 787 is carbon composite. But I'd think if one got all the training necessary and has a long history with the company, they're not going to have problems working on other plane assemblies.)

How long do you think we're going to here all of this Hell Flag waving Chief? Probably last a few years as one knows some of the state delegation is going to have to come through with some other project or find a way to save their hides on this.

Wonder how much more of the Boeing company air plane outside of the 767, 757 and odler 737 fleet is going to be shipped out of Puget Sound area and into foreign countries?

Just get the feeling this won't be the last plane and Hell Flag up the pole screaming that the delegation will be doing.