Gov't give French co. $100 bill. contract over US co.

[Savage_Messiah]

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-tanker1mar01,1,7754266.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

The Air Force decision is a blow to Boeing's prestige. The deal ultimately could be worth $100 billion.


In a stunning upset that could reshape the nation's aerospace industry, Northrop Grumman Corp. and European partner Airbus were tapped Friday for a $40-billion Pentagon contract to build 179 aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force.

Century City-based Northrop upset rival Boeing Co. in a surprising win that analysts said could alter the companies' fortunes and erode the Pentagon's long-standing policy of buying weapons systems made by U.S. companies.

[SteveR]

Its a no brainer. Boeing's proposal was insane. They basically wanted to lease the Air Force a fleet of 767s, at a cost at the end of the lease nearly that to purchase the planes, then the AF would have to pay to outfit the planes as refuelers, then pay to have them re-outfitted the way that Boeing's customer wanted them at the end of the lease when Boeing sold them to someone else. Ridiculous. It would have cost more than just buying the planes, and would have been a short term PITA decision. The whole retarded idea was the brainchild of some politician (cant remember who) and Boeing's top execs. Because they wanted it all, they get nothing. So Northrop-Grumman forms a deal with Airbus, and now they get the contract. It'll save the government billions of dollars, and the AF will have a more long term solution to their aging fleet.

Yea, a lot of money will go overseas, but Northrup-Grumman will see a lot too. This has been a serious problem since before I started working for the government and they were talking about all this then, and that was eight years ago.