If EADS/Northrop Wants Out, Keep Them Out
Another week, another Northrop Grumman complaint about the RFP for replacing the ageing KC-135 tankers.
Aside from the fact the posturing from EADS/Northrop Grumman is getting boring, their ultimate aim in attempting to get more recognition for the A330’s capability against Boeing’s likely offering, the 767, is unlikely to either please Defense Department officials or those lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Considering most, if not all aerial refuelling tankers arrive back from missions with unused fuel, the RFP is right to declare that “more” does not equate to more recognition.
Image courtesy of EADS
Infrastructure will be the biggest driver behind the contract award - and if A330’s are arriving back at base with more fuel than today’s KC-135’s, storage as well as ground support costs will invariable increase. And that’s before you factor in the untold sums that must be spent on supporting the larger A330 at military airbases that may not be able to cope with its significant size over the KC-135’s.
But of course, this nugget is routinely overlooked and virtually dismissed by the cap-in-hand Alabama “give us your Euro jobs” teams that hope to create up to “50,000″ positions as Northrop Grumman claims if they land the deal.
EADS/Northrop Grumman should be thankful that as of yet, the US Air Force has not brought in the WTO’s indictment of illegal aid for every single Airbus platform to date. Northrop has already been embarrassed enough by Undersecretary of Defense, Ashton Carter when he outright (and correctly) dismissed claims that pricing data revealed to Boeing somehow constitutes an advantage when the current RFP has no bearing on the previous contest.
“The Department has played this right down the middle and will continue to do so,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Of course, this is unpalatable to the erstwhile supporters of the untested EADS/Northrop Grumman partnership with its mythical factory in Alabama.
What the same proponents of that team seem to forget is that this is supposed to be a contest - there is no evidence to suggest that Boeing is going to win. Look at history - they lost out on two previous occasions - a third bash will not guarantee anything. Importantly, the Defense Department cannot be seen to favour one over another for fear of another protest and a dressing down by the GAO.
Image courtesy of UnitedStatesTanker.com
Various Senators claiming that the RFP favours Boeing seem to conveniently forget that by claiming it as fact, are already doing a disservice to the protocol behind the process for selection, thereby undermining the requirements of the US Air Force and skewing the Defense Departments ability to finally get this contract awarded to a vendor once and for all.
EADS/Northrop Grumman had threatened before to withdraw from the competition. They are trying to force the customer into changing the RFP to suit their solution, not the other way around.
If they want out, keep them out, drop the pretence to placate the real desire for EADS/Airbus to fund its commercial aerospace factory in the United States with US taxpayer money and sole source the contract to Boeing.
It is no less than they deserve given their attitude to the Department of Defense throughout the contest so far.
EADS/Northrop should stop, breathe and exhale…
60 comments December 2nd, 2009
