More New Tanker Woes

It’s official. Boeing is going to the mattresses.

Boeing Co. said it plans to protest the Air Force’s decision to award a $40 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers to a team comprising Northrop Grumman Corp. and the parent company of rival Airbus. The move sets up a protracted political fight over the use of foreign contractors for U.S. military jobs. Boeing said it will file a formal protest today for the first time this decade, asking the Government Accountability Office to review the Air Force’s decision to give the contract to Northrop and European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co.

This hurts everyone. It delays Air Force acquisition of a badly needed airframe (most of the current tankers are 50+ year old KC-135s), it forces the winning bidders to waste resources playing defense, and it’s a PR disaster for Boeing. Every day that this story is in the news, it reminds the American public that the reason the Air Force is still flying such an ancient fleet of tankers is the Boeing corruption scandal of the early 2000s. Now they’re further delaying the deployment, in what looks to be a chronic case of sore loser syndrome. Boeing is smarter than this. They should recognize a losing battle when they see one, and let the Air Force get those new planes into the war. HT – Hot Air

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