[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.