In a surprise move, the U.S. government awarded a large contract for military tankers to Northrop Grumman Corporation and their European partner EADS (which is the defense wing of Airbus). This deal is huge in scale, estimated at anywhere from $40 to $100 billion dollars over the next 30 years. The decision is controversial because it selects a European designed and built aircraft over a variation of the American built Boeing 767.
The current fleet of U.S. tankers mostly dates back to the 1950s and 60s. The government has been in negotiations to replace the fleet for many years and at one point had agreed to a deal with Boeing. After the award in the early part of this decade, news broke of U.S. government official pay offs as well as a high level position offer within Boeing for the Air Force officer in charge of negotiating the deal. The government, feeling the heat, cancelled the agreement and the chairman of Boeing Phil Condit was forced to resign as part of the fall out from the scandal.
The United States defense industry has always been essentially closed to foreign competition. A few large American firms (Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopters, Sikorsky) have dominated the trade for decades. There are a few exceptions, case in point the British Harrier aircraft that can take off and land vertically. Still, Friday's announcement stunned the industry.
I consider the news to be a welcome move in the right direction. (Truthfully, I am stunned the Bush administration would let this happen. This is a huge hot button issue with local American communities that depend on defense projects. Congressional inquires have already begun.) This next statement may shock you, but Americans do not always have the best stuff. We get it right most of the time, but there is nothing wrong in giving the other guy's product a look see. How many of us buy American cars these days? European aviation produced both Concorde and the Harrier. They also built Airbus into one of the leaders in global aviation against stiff competition from American aircraft makers. One of the keys to Airbus' success is the commonality of its systems and flight deck technology. Any Airbus aircraft starting with the A318 all the way to the mammoth A380 have virtually the same flight deck. Retraining a pilot to fly a different Airbus aircraft takes approximately one day of training. A pilot going from a 737 to any other Boeing aircraft requires weeks of training. This is a huge expense for airlines and military customers around the globe and a key selling point for Airbus. Airbus partnered up with Northrop Grumman and have agreed to assemble the tanker aircraft in Mobile, Alabama. The Air Force has also signed a deal with General Electric to provide $5 billion in engines for the new fleet. In this day and age, aircraft are built with parts from suppliers worldwide. The new Boeing 787 is being assembled from components manufactured in India, Sweden, China, Japan, Italy, and Australia as well as the United States and many other countries. There is no longer a 100% "American plane" in existence.
Still, the old military guard is not happy and have started howling the "F" word to anyone who will listen. "French". We are buying a "French" plane, When did Americans starting buying "French" stuff?, and on and on. Give it a rest jerk offs. In case one does not remember, without France's help there is a good chance the United States would not have won the Revolutionary War and the map might look far different than it does today. France also gave us a little gift called the Statue of Liberty. I am not sure when it became cool to bash the French, perhaps it has always been a part of our culture. Yes, the French are culturally very different and they do things their own way. As Americans we should respect different points of view, not snub them. They are proud of their culture, set in their ways, and defensive in nature. Sound like anyone you know? Bueller...Bueller.
Over the next twenty to forty years, foreign policy is moving in a direction of the West versus the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the East and the emerging Asian tigers of China and India. (One can also never count out the Russians as a spoiler.) Environmental issues as well as political and financial concerns in the coming years are going to require our cooperation as a nation with Europe and the rest of the world. The U.S. can no longer stick its head in the sand and pretend we are our own island. The Earth is our island. The Air Force has made an important step in the right direction of global cooperation and one can only hope we keep it up.
Cuidate.
