For Immediate Release	Contact:  Leslie K. Paige    202.467.5334
February 24, 2011	Luke Gelber    202.467.5305

 

(Washington, D.C.) – Replacing the aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers has been an Air Force priority since 2002.  In that year, Congress approved funding for Boeing to lease up to 100 767s to replace the 50-year-old KC-135 tankers.  However, the deal fell apart in a 2004 bribery scandal in which a top Pentagon procurement officer and a senior Boeing official were convicted and served prison sentences.

In the aftermath, the Air Force undertook a new, competitive bidding process and two companies, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, submitted proposals.  Just before the announcement of the contract winner in 2008, both sides were reported in the press to be satisfied that the process had been fair and transparent.  Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who represents a state where Boeing makes its planes, said on October 31, 2007, “I’m proud that the process for selecting a company to supply these tankers has been a truly open one.”  Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kans.), from another state with a large Boeing presence said, “…I must commend the Air Force for their efforts in conducting an open and fair competition.  To date, I have been nothing but impressed with their obvious desire to provide the best aircraft to the American people.”

The day the Air Force awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman, the political environment abruptly changed in Washington, D.C.  Northrop Grumman’s prime subcontractor is the North American division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS).  Suddenly, Being corporate spokespersons and the company’s supporters began accusing the Air Force of using unreliable foreign suppliers to build the tanker, expressing angst at how many jobs would be lost to workers overseas and arguing that national security was being compromised.  All of these arguments ignore the fact that Boeing’s planes contain foreign parts, including some manufactured in China and Japan, that the Northrop Grumman plane would be built in Alabama, and that security issues will be handled by the Air Force.