Vervanging US tankvliegtuigen

[IPA NG]

Natuurlijk wil je als Amerika alles zelf maken, lijkt me normaal.

En nu wil de Fransen met hun Napoleon-syndroom ons zeker via hun EU tegen de VS opzetten..?

[KapiteinRob]

Tja, het is Europa z'n eigen schuld. Als je het er niet mee ens bent, doe er dan wat tegen. Dat gejammer en gepiep; de Amerikanen spelen het spel gewoon harder; kunnen we nog wat van leren.......

[HermanB]

Tja dat doet natuurlijk pijn, boontje komt om z'n loontje in dit geval.

[Ros]

Vanuit Amerikaanse economische belangen geen vreemde ontwikkeling. Ook een teken aan de wand wat er mogelijk kan gebeuren met compensatieorders in het JSF project.

[VandeWiel]

Europa mag wel Amerikaanse vliegtuigen kopen, maar omgekeerd is uit den boze. Interessant hoe dit zich gaat ontwikkelen. Het gaat om een zeer belangrijk contract van ruim 50 miljard usd.

[VandeWiel]

France has vowed to retaliate against the United States for allegedly shutting Europe's aviation giant EADS out of a $50bn (£33.4bn) defence contract, warning of potential damage to the Atlantic alliance.


"This is a serious affair," said France's Europe minister Pierre Lellouche. "I can assure you that there will be consequences."
"You cannot expect Europeans to contribute to global defence if you deny their industries the right to work on both sides of the Atlantic," he said, adding that French president Nicolas Sarkozy would take action "at the appropriate time".

The escalating spat comes after EADS withdrew this week from a joint bid with Northrop Grumman to supply the Pentagon with A330 air refuelling tankers, alleging that the procurement terms had been rigged to favour Boeing.

EADS had already won the contract before, offering a larger and more efficient aircraft than Boeing's 767, which is based on technology dating back to the early 1980s. The original deal was struck down after an appeal by Boeing.

Defence disputes fall outside the ambit of the World Trade Organization so Paris is looking at other ways to strike back. "It is obvious that if we roll over and do nothing after a fait accompli by the Pentagon, it is the end of Europe's credibility," said Mr Lellouche.

Rainer Brüderle, Germany's economy minister, has also expressed outrage, alleging that the tender "had clearly been designed to favour Boeing under political pressure."

Joachim Pfeiffer, Bundestag spokesman for the Christian Democrats, said the Pentagon's conduct was "scandalous", a sentiment echoed by a string of politicians on Wednesday.

The dispute casts a cloud over EADS ambitions to become a major player in the US and may have larger strategic implications, causing Europe to reshape its defence doctrines. Mr Sarkozy has been a staunch ally of the US, bringing France back into Nato and holding firm in Afghanistan, but concerns are mounting that the mercurial French leader may revert to Paris's prickly traditions.

Germany's Bernhard Stiedl, a member of the EADS board, said Europe needs to rethink its whole approach to defence in light of the affair. There is a risk that the spat could sap goodwill towards a NATO alliance already struggling to reinvent itself after the Cold War.

EADS had agreed to assemble the A330 tanker in Alabama, and half the jobs would have been in the US, but that was not enough to overcome deeper – if unstated – concerns about the role of rival powers in US defence procurement. EADS is perceived in Washington as a tool of French foreign policy, despite efforts by current chief Louis Gallois to tone down its Gallic image.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/defence/7415855/France-vows-retaliation-against-US-in-air-tanker-dispute.html

[Ace1]

Boeing moet niet moeilijk doen, want de amerikaanse luchtmacht gaat ook C17 Globemaster III aanschaffen.

[HermanB]

Als Boeing de order had gekregen dan was waren EADS en Northrop ook in protest gegaan. Standaard procedure als je een grote order misloopt.

[Enforcer]

Boeing heeft door fraude en bedrog al getracht het contract binnen te halen. Moeten ze niet blijven janken en hadden ze maar eerlijk aan de spelregels moeten houden. Hebben ze de vacature's al gevuld voor zij die gefraudeerd hebben en de bak in zijn gegaan?!

[Lex]

Boeing protesteert tegen EADS-contract

WASHINGTON -  Vliegtuigbouwer Boeing gaat protesteren tegen het besluit van de Amerikaanse luchtmacht om een contract voor de levering van tankvliegtuigen toe te kennen aan een consortium van het Europese EADS en het Amerikaanse Northrop/Grumman. Dat heeft Boeing maandag laten weten.

De vliegtuigbouwer dient het protest in bij de GAO, de Algemene Rekenkamer van de VS. De Amerikaanse luchtmacht gunde de opdracht voor de bouw van tankvliegtuigen ter waarde van 35 miljard dollar enkele weken geleden aan het Amerikaanse Northrop Grumman en aan een consortium van EADS.

De luchtmacht stelde dat aan de offerte van Boeing meer risico's kleefden. Boeing liet eerder al weten dat het daarover tekst en uitleg wil.

Boeing is de fabrikant van de tankvliegtuigen die de Amerikaanse luchtmacht nu in gebruik heeft. Het bedrijf had de opdracht om die toestellen te vervangen aanvankelijk toegewezen gekregen. Dat besluit werd echter teruggedraaid omdat bij de toekenning sprake zou zijn geweest van vriendjespolitiek.

anp | Gepubliceerd op 10 maart 2008, 23:36

[Lex]

Angry Boeing supporters target McCain

Angry Boeing supporters are vowing revenge against Republican presidential candidate John McCain over Chicago-based Boeing's loss of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract to the parent company of European plane maker Airbus.

There are other targets for their ire — the Air Force, the defense secretary and even the entire Bush administration.

But Boeing supporters in Congress are directing their wrath at McCain, the Arizona senator and nominee in waiting, for scuttling an earlier deal that would have let Boeing build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers. Boeing now will miss out on a deal that it says would have supported 44,000 new and existing jobs at the company and suppliers in 40 states.

"I hope the voters of this state remember what John McCain has done to them and their jobs," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., whose state would have been home to the tanker program and gained about 9,000 jobs.

"Having made sure that Iraq gets new schools, roads, bridges and dams that we deny America, now we are making sure that France gets the jobs that Americans used to have," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. "We are sending the jobs overseas, all because John McCain demanded it."

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, won a competition with Boeing Feb. 29 to build the refueling planes in one of the biggest Pentagon contracts in decades. The unexpected decision has sparked outrage from union halls to the halls of Congress over the impact on U.S. jobs, prestige and national security. EADS and Northrop say about 60 percent of their tanker will be built in the U.S.

McCain said he is keeping an open mind on the contract, but in the past he has boasted about his role in blocking an earlier version of the tanker deal that gave the contract to Boeing. The deal was killed in 2004 after a former Boeing executive improperly recruited an Air Force official while she was still overseeing contracts involving prospective Boeing deals. The former Air Force official, Darleen Druyun, and a top Boeing executive both served time in prison, and the scandal led to the departure of Boeing's chief executive and several top Air Force officials.

McCain has run ads touting his role in fighting "pork" such as the tanker project and cited the deal in a recent GOP debate.

"I saved the taxpayers $6 billion in a bogus tanker deal," he said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoing the thoughts of many congressional Democrats, sees McCain's role in a less positive light. She said the earlier tanker deal was "on course for Boeing" before McCain started railing against it.

"I mean, the thought was that it would be a domestic supplier for it," Pelosi told reporters. "Senator McCain intervened, and now we have a situation where the contract may be — this work may be outsourced."

Even Boeing's Republican supporters are critical of McCain.

"John McCain will be the nominee and I will support him, but if John McCain believes that Airbus or EADS is the company for our Air Force tanker program he's flat-out wrong — and I'll tell him that to his face," said Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, a Kansas Republican whose district includes a Boeing plant that could have gained hundreds of new jobs from the tanker program, said McCain's role in killing the earlier deal is likely to become an election issue. Both of the leading Democratic candidates for president, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, have criticized the Air Force decision.

"I think we absolutely will hear more about it," Tiahrt said. "We'll hear it mostly from the Democrats and they have every right to be concerned."

McCain called such criticism off base.

"In all due respect to the Washington delegation, they vigorously defended the process before — which turned out to be corrupt — which would have cost the taxpayers more than $6 billion and ended up with people in federal prison," he said. "I'm the one that fought against that ... for years and brought down a corrupt contract."

Keith Ashdown, with the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said Boeing executives who broke the law were to blame for the demise of the tanker contract — not McCain.

"This was theirs from day one," he said. "This idea that any lawmaker is to blame is a joke."

Still, Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University, said McCain's opposition to Boeing could hurt him with voters in Washington and other states affected by the tanker program. Boeing would have performed much of the work in Everett, Wash., and Wichita, Kan., and used Pratt & Whitney engines built in Connecticut. Significant work also was slated for Texas.

"If he can be painted as somehow being associated with job losses ... it could hurt him on the margins," Donovan said.

McCain's role in the tanker deal did not bother Alabama politicians, including Republican Gov. Bob Riley, who endorsed McCain three days after the Air Force contract was announced. The EADS-Northrop tanker, based on the Airbus A330, will be built in Mobile, Ala., where it will produce 2,000 new jobs, and support 25,000 jobs at suppliers nationwide.

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 8, 9:44 AM ET

[Lex]

Boeing overweegt protest tegen luchtmacht VS

CHICAGO - Vliegtuigmaatschappij Boeing overweegt een protest in te dienen tegen het weggeven van een zeer lucratieve opdracht aan zijn Europese aartsrivaal Airbus. Dat werd dit weekend bekend.
Airbus is een dochterbedrijf van het Europese lucht- en ruimtevaartconcern EADS. 
De Amerikaanse luchtmacht gunde onlangs de opdracht voor de bouw van tankvliegtuigen ter waarde van 35 miljard dollar aan een consortium van Airbus en het Amerikaanse Northrop Grumman. Leidinggevende functionarissen van Boeing hebben echter "ernstige bedenkingen" geuit over de toekenning van de order.

Offerte
Volgens de Amerikaanse luchtmacht kleefde aan de offerte van Boeing meer risico's dan aan die van Airbus en zijn partner. Maar daar stelt Mark McGraw, programmamanager van Boeing vraagtekens bij, na de evaluatie van door de luchtmacht geleverde informatie.
Boeing heeft tien werkdagen de tijd om een protest tegen het verlenen van de order aan het consortium in te dienen bij de Government Accountability Office, een toezichthoudend orgaan van het Amerikaanse Congres.

(c) ANP Uitgegeven: 9 maart 2008 19:09

[Lex]

Air Force Awards Tanker Contract to Northrop Grumman

WASHINGTON: The Air Force announced today it has selected Northrop Grumman Corp. to build its next-generation air-refueling tanker aircraft. 

The contract calls for up to 179 new KC-45A tankers to be built over the next decade or so at a cost of around $35 billion. Tanker aircraft are used to refuel other aircraft while in flight. 

"This initial contract for the newly named KC-45A will provide significantly greater air refueling capabilities than our current fleet of Eisenhower-era KC-135s," Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. 

The new tanker "will be able to refuel U.S. and allied aircraft in every area of responsibility, worldwide, 24 hours a day, in adverse weather and be equipped with defensive systems," Wynne said. 

The new planes eventually will replace hundreds of aging KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft that were introduced in the late 1950s. 

"Today's tanker decision is a major step in the Air Force's critical recapitalizing and modernization that is going to be required to defend the United States and to support our international partners in the 21st century," Wynne said. 

The new aircraft also will used to carry cargo, passengers, and medical patients, the Air Force secretary said. "The KC-45, built by Northrop Grumman, will provide our nation and partners the critical ability to reach across the globe and project our combat capability or our humanitarian friendship rapidly and effectively," Gen. Duncan J. McNabb, the Air Force's vice chief of staff, said. 

The new tankers, McNabb continued, will "ensure our bombers and our fighters can deliver global power and give our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms the ability to provide global vigilance."
The Airbus-Northrop Grumman partnership had competed against the Boeing Co. for the tanker contract, said Sue C. Payton, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition. Payton cited the transparency of the contracting competition, noting both enterprises had received regular feedback from the Air Force on how they were performing throughout the process. 

"Northrop Grumman clearly provided the best value to the government," Payton said, noting the Airbus-allied group's plane earned superior marks for mission capability, past performance and in several other categories. 

"I would tell you, that, overall, Northrop Grumman did have strong areas in aerial refueling and in airlift," Payton said. There was "no bias" involved in the awarding of the contract, she emphasized. 

Both competitors will be debriefed in coming weeks, Payton said, noting there is an appeal process. 

If everything goes well, the first test aircraft should be flying by 2010, said Air Force Gen. Arthur J. Lichte, commander of Air Mobility Command based at Scott Air Force Base, Ill. Air Mobility Command provides the U.S. military with passenger, cargo, tanker and other aircraft support. 

The Air Force should receive the first group of operational KC-45A aircraft around 2013, Lichte said. 

Citing his role as Air Mobility Command's chief, Lichte expressed relief that the process to deliver a new air refueling tanker to his service is moving forward. 

"We know that in the future years we will have a new tanker," Lichte said. "Tankers are what really enable the fight."

NG, Mar 4, 2008

[Lex]

WASHINGTON - Het Europese lucht- en ruimtevaartconcern EADS heeft samen met zijn Amerikaanse partner Northrop Grumman een grote order in de wacht gesleept in de Verenigde Staten.
Het consortium gaat voor 35 miljard dollar (23 miljard euro) 179 tankvliegtuigen aan de Amerikaanse luchtmacht leveren. Dat heeft het Amerikaanse ministerie vrijdagavond bekendgemaakt. 

Favoriet
Het nieuws is een zware klap voor Boeing, de Amerikaanse concurrent van EADS. Boeing leek favoriet voor de order en gaat mogelijk in beroep.
Volgens Boeing had de order veel banen kunnen scheppen voor Amerikanen en gaan die nu naar Europeanen. EADS wijst erop dat de assemblage van de tanktoestellen in de VS gebeurt. Dat levert vele duizenden arbeidsplaatsen op.

Vloot
De 179 vliegtuigen, die gevechtsvliegtuigen in de lucht van brandstof voorzien, worden op basis van de Airbus A330 gebouwd. De eerste toestellen worden in 2013 in gebruik genomen en vervangen de verouderde vloot van KC-135 toestellen, waarvan sommige al sinds de jaren zestig dienst doen.
Op termijn zouden VS alle vijfhonderd toestellen willen vervangen. Daarmee zal in totaal een bedrag van 100 miljard dollar (66 miljard euro) zijn gemoeid.

(c) ANP Uitgegeven: 1 maart 2008 08:03