http://seattletimes.nwsource.com
The Boeing loss means that the 767 assembly line in Everett will wind to a close around 2012 when the current commercial orders run out.
No layoffs are likely as workers will transfer to other programs. But Washington State has lost out on the chance to add as many as 9,000 jobs.
Until now, Boeing has had a monopoly on the supply of large air tankers to the U.S. military. But Northrop Grumman, in partnership with Airbus parent EADS, will build the next generation tankers using a modified Airbus A330 instead of the Everett-built 767 Boeing had put forward.
The deal, worth about $40 billion over two decades, is for the supply and maintenance of 179 tankers replacing old Boeing-built KC-135 airplanes.
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In its quest for new tankers, the Air Force in 2002 negotiated a $23 billion deal with Boeing for a hundred 767 tankers, but it quickly came under fire in Congress as a financial handout for Boeing. The critics were led by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who was on the Senate Armed Services Committee at the time and is now the likely Republican presidential nominee........
2 comments:
I won't be voting for McCain. Giving these jobs to France is OUTRAGEOUS. Outsourcing our manufacturing jobs to the third world is a disaster. Our dollar is falling like lead and gas prices are rising like a rocket. Open boarders and outsourcing is wrecking our economy. Wake UP America!
The contract was awarded to a joint effort between Airbus(FR) AND
Northrop Grumman(US).
http://www.northropgrumman.com/kc45/
The Airbus tanker PERFORMS better than Boeing's and was the lower bid.
Don't we want the best products for our military and the best use of tax-payer dollars?
Air Force officials said the bid from Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS) outpaced Boeing’s bid in most areas. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, Boeing’s main rival in the global commercial airplane market.
“More passengers, more cargo, more fuel offload, more patients that we can carry, more availability, more flexibility and more dependability,” Gen. Arthur Lichte, the commander of the Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, said of the Northrop Grumman-EADS KC-45A tanker."
This Airbus/NG contract will bring new jobs to either Florida or Alabama. It is a business partnership... jobs are being created in both countries.
"Issaquah-based aerospace analyst Scott Hamilton said he doubts anyone working on the 767 line or the tanker project will lose a job because of the failure to win the new contract.
In fact, Boeing officials told SPEEA on Friday that none of the engineering or technical workers associated with the project will be laid off, SPEEA spokesman Bill Dugovich said. “The engineers will go to work on the 787 or the 777 upgrade or new 737 project,” Hamilton predicted.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/298/story/297027.html
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