Sucks to be Northrop Right Now
It is highly likely the Air Force will reopen the tanker contract previously won by NGC and subsequently protested by Boeing. At stake is $35 billion. Obviously, the winner today is Boeing's KC-767AT proposal and NGC's KC-45 proposal the loser, but I argue the real losers are the armed services who will have to endure yet another delay before a replacement tanker will come online to replace the aging KC-10 and KC-135 fleet.
I ask you, after the Boeing fiasco where that company was penalized for rigging the first attempt to award the contract, how did the Air Force blow this one? I would have thought all of the t's were crossed and the i's dotted; now it seems the Air Force dotted the former and crossed the later.
Although the KC-45 airframes produced in Alabama, they are EADS designed Airbus A330s, a European product. Boeing 767s are produced and designed in Seattle. Is this a case of parochial protectionism? I would argue we need to overlook such concepts, for it is far better to procure best-of-breed products, we would be endangering our servicemen and women to do otherwise. Of course, where products involve sensitive or classified information, I argue to keep it all onshore. The tanker, though, is an airframe, not communications encryption.
One might also suspect a deep conspiracy--with defense dollars dwindling for new development because of ongoing war commitments--this could be a ploy by the brass to further delay committing money to this project on the contractor's dime until a new fiscal year comes about.
In the end, we taxpayers can only watch the DoD as it compounds newer and more ingenious ways to budgetary disaster.
I ask you, after the Boeing fiasco where that company was penalized for rigging the first attempt to award the contract, how did the Air Force blow this one? I would have thought all of the t's were crossed and the i's dotted; now it seems the Air Force dotted the former and crossed the later.
Although the KC-45 airframes produced in Alabama, they are EADS designed Airbus A330s, a European product. Boeing 767s are produced and designed in Seattle. Is this a case of parochial protectionism? I would argue we need to overlook such concepts, for it is far better to procure best-of-breed products, we would be endangering our servicemen and women to do otherwise. Of course, where products involve sensitive or classified information, I argue to keep it all onshore. The tanker, though, is an airframe, not communications encryption.
One might also suspect a deep conspiracy--with defense dollars dwindling for new development because of ongoing war commitments--this could be a ploy by the brass to further delay committing money to this project on the contractor's dime until a new fiscal year comes about.
In the end, we taxpayers can only watch the DoD as it compounds newer and more ingenious ways to budgetary disaster.
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