RE: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,163119,00.html

So much for supporting American companies and American worker. The USAF should be enbarrassed. Especally with a War on Terror going on and most of Eurpoe not supporting the U.S.

I hope for once Congress does the right thing and does not let this happen!

Wow, now there is a monumental screw up!!!! My money says this will bite us in the A$$!! And I bet they will miss use this aircraft also. Already talking about people and cargo moving. Use tankers as TANKERS!!!!

You know at first this pissed me off, but you know I think the U.S. Air Force should get the best air re-fueler out there.....and I think they may have, I think as a society we have forgotten what its like to be # 2, I think we can make a better product.....just don’t know if the American people have the dedication to do it.
We do on the other hand need to keep the U.S. dollar here....can you imagine if China was building our planes!!

Sending American Dollars to France? thats a good one. yeah they maybe assembled here but it all starts there meaning the buck goes there in the end. plus we have to be self sufficient. We cant have another country knowing how our intimate air refueling systems work.

Heres another story on it that has some diff. info. Seems as McCain had a part in this deal leaving the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/business/29cnd-tanker.html?hp
Yet for more than a decade the Air Force’s effort to modernize the fleet has been thwarted by global politics, Washington scandals and an aggressive attack by Senator John McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Are we sure we want him as POTUS?

joenoplis has an unique concept of number 1 in the aerospace. Total planes sold? OK, he has that one. Sort of. Airbus has a tendency to announce sales that don't exist verses Boeing's more conservative approach. Time will tell. Quality? Boeing rules. No one is close. Period. You compare the number of Boeing planes in service (way more than Airbus) vs number of defects and the comparison ends there. Not even close. Boeing's tanker product is now in service in Italy and Japan. It is known to work. The development time is negligible. Airbus is a concept only. Zero working models. Nada. Boeing will protest this deal and the fallout will be severe. People will go to jail for giving a contract to basically France, a country that has failed to support us in our time of need far too many times.

A totally dumb and stupid decision.

Boeing got exactly what it deserved,nothing!!! Higher price,less everything else the Air Force needed in a new plane all because they thought the Air Force had no choice but to submit to Boeing's will.Politicians bought by Boeing will bark like the lap dogs they are but in the end,they have no real argument against Airbus and Northrop-Grumman's superior plane that will put 25,000 Americans on the assembly line.

I agree with jonopolis!! Our nation is being driven to increase it's GNP by such things as this!!

Free breakfests for kids. "Free",...(Pd 4 X your tax $), everything and anything. Forced pre-K for every kid! THAT means you girls WILL get your unoccupied and lazy butts out there into the workforce, and NOW! Get out there & help to increase our GDP!

I hope you all enjoy Socialism and The embrace of Liberalism. So far it has mananged to destroy our Family-structure and will eventually meld us into the so-called new world order thing.

Unless we elect people with an AMERICA FIRST ethic,... we're screwed! So are those that follow us know as our CHILDREN: Our Nation: Our legacy to the future and eventually the World as we know it.
This Failure is due to GREED, for both $ and power,... of those persons' we elect that who proport to represent us!! Neither Party sits at this table with clean hands. I wish I knew the answer.

Look what those of us that consider ourselves to be "conservatives" have had foisted upon us with the Manchurian Candidate: John McCain.

This decision makes me very sad.

Good Night..sweet dreams & G#D Bless.
JD

Wait until we cant get parts from our european friends because the parts will be used in aircraft whose operations they might not approve of by these weak, spineless european governments.....

quote:

Originally posted by joenoplis:
You know at first this pissed me off, but you know I think the U.S. Air Force should get the best air re-fueler out there.....and I think they may have, I think as a society we have forgotten what its like to be # 2, I think we can make a better product.....just don’t know if the American people have the dedication to do it.
We do on the other hand need to keep the U.S. dollar here....can you imagine if China was building our planes!!

If the Airbus is so great, why does it keep falling out of the sky?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kHa3WNerjU

Why is my tax money going to a foreign company. I have two sons working in an Air Refueling Squadron. They work on Boeing KC-135s. Those planes have flown for 50 years without a hitch -

Our boys won't be getting the best. They're getting the lowest bid!!! That sucks!!

With all the crap France has given the US military in the past few decades why the hell would the AF want to reward them?

As a U.S. taxpayer I'd like to know why my hard earned money is headed to Europe to purchase military tankers from Airbus. What on earth are we thinking? Why didn't we just go to China? I'm sure we could have got a cheaper deal from them? Or maybe even Russia, since we are using Russian rocket engines to launch our military satellites using the Atlas V launch vehicles. Yes, I'm sure everyone is aware that we are using Russian built rocket motors to launch our military assets. What do you think the odds are that our friends in France will ever let these tankers fly over France in a time of war? So here we are, we pay to protect the world, we pay for the world's freedom with the blood of American soldiers, and because the rest of the world - especially France - doesn't pay their fair share, now we reward their behavior by sending them our tax dollars to buy Airbus planes to fuel our military aircraft. Message to Congress: Please tell me what your plans are to turn this ridiculous decision around. My goodness, if this deal goes through, you should all be voted out of office.

Shite should hit the fan over this if Congress has any cajones........they can stop it.

quote:

Originally posted by tickedoffataf:
As a U.S. taxpayer I'd like to know why my hard earned money is headed to Europe to purchase military tankers from Airbus. What on earth are we thinking? Why didn't we just go to China? I'm sure we could have got a cheaper deal from them? Or maybe even Russia, since we are using Russian rocket engines to launch our military satellites using the Atlas V launch vehicles. Yes, I'm sure everyone is aware that we are using Russian built rocket motors to launch our military assets. What do you think the odds are that our friends in France will ever let these tankers fly over France in a time of war? So here we are, we pay to protect the world, we pay for the world's freedom with the blood of American soldiers, and because the rest of the world - especially France - doesn't pay their fair share, now we reward their behavior by sending them our tax dollars to buy Airbus planes to fuel our military aircraft. Message to Congress: Please tell me what your plans are to turn this ridiculous decision around. My goodness, if this deal goes through, you should all be voted out of office.

I take it you don't work for Northrup Grumman, GE jet engines, Honeywell, Alcoa or any of the other 250 American sub-contractors and their 25,000 American workers. Boeing would have subcontracted just as much work and components outside the US as NG and EADS will.

Boeing got their hand slapped trying screw the American Taxpayer out of Billions for the original Lease Back deal for the Tankers back in 2003

Grow up we are living in a global economy, check out where everything you own and use came from, and make a forever promise you will never buy anything on sale or that has a foreign component or from WalMart, Where was your computer made,bet it wasn't made in the good ole' US of A, shame one you.

P.S the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and AirBus 380, the new Corvette, the F22 Raptor was designed with CATIA virtual reality CAD CAM software, CREATED AND PRODUCED in France by Dassault S.A that should give you a couple more sleepless nights.

The people wondered why employment is in the tank in our nation. Now it is being made apparent. Most products sold in Wal*Mart et all are foreign produced. Now our USAF will have foreign produced tools for defense. Scary!

2012: This is the year Israel will go back into Lebanon. US may go to Iran at the same time to secure the oil( like in Iraq ). The US needs more UN support. The US doesn't buy that much stuff from France.
Here are just a few purchases from the socialist
utopias:Owned or built under license.
M2 .50 Machine Gun. Belgian FN.
M1 tank Gun. Germany, Rhine metal.
Harrier Jump Jet. UK
Humvee and FMTV trucks. UK. BAE,
Striker/LAV. GM Canada.
M113 Gavin. Bradley, UK. BAE
Bushmasters 4x4 recon veh. Australia
PVI. MRAP. Partially owned by Israel.
Golan MRAP. Israel.
MLRS rocket launcher. BAE UK.
Oshkosh Hemmt. Tank Transporter: French axles.
Freightliner LineHaul Truck.Daimler Benz.Germany
USMC. G-wagon/Jeep. Daimler Benz. Germany
International Harvester MRAPs-German(MAN axles).
Most computer programs, missile guidance systems, Anti-tank weapons, patriot,satellite,
Sea mines, Grenades, Mortars, mines, etc.Sweden.
Switzerland,Israel,Belgium, Germany, etc.
LAV/Striker. Lic from Mowag. Swiss/Ger.
Mk.19 Grenade launcher.Russian copy.30mmto 40mm.
30mm,40mm, and other Auto cannons:Bofors.Sweeden
Some Coast Guard Helicopters. France.
Mrap Technology, South Africa, Israel.
Most Kevlar Helmets, Vests, Belts. BAE/Armour Holdings. UK BAE.
FMTV Truck was purchased by Stewart and Stevenson ( Texas USA) from Steyr. Austria. Then sold to Armour Holdings. Then sold to BAE. UK.
Humvee (same path). I'll stop here.
The US is trying to make a WAR alliance.
Australia, Canada, Germany, UK, Poland, Ukraine,
Israel, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, Ethiopia in Somalia, Oceania, and a few others.
They are rewarded with favored trade, discount
oil and gasoline, loans, Military purchases,
Grants, Training, Food, Travel waivers etc.
This is modern colonialism, It's good to a point. Pisses off the outsiders that get left behind. Like Russia. South America. Africa.

quote:

Originally posted by woodyarn:
Heres another story on it that has some diff. info. Seems as McCain had a part in this deal leaving the country.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/business/29cnd-tanker.html?hp
Yet for more than a decade the Air Force’s effort to modernize the fleet has been thwarted by global politics, Washington scandals and an aggressive attack by Senator John McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Are we sure we want him as POTUS?

Damn straight ... stopped a sole source, sweetheart deal that was crooked as well. I'll take as many McCains as I can find. He had nothing to do with the deal leaving the country ... Boeing got bested. Whether Boeing might have won the contract had they and top Air Force officials not been crooks in the first place is open to debate.

quote:

The Air Force, short on cash and wanting to acquire the planes as fast as possible, proposed an arrangement to Congress in late 2001 under which the Pentagon would lease the Boeing 767s in a multiyear sole-source contract that would keep Boeing’s aging 767 production line alive.

But just as the Air Force was about to sign that deal, it came under sharp attack from Senator McCain, a former pilot and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Mr. McCain denounced the deal as a sweetheart arrangement between Boeing and the Air Force that would shortchange the taxpayer and that was arranged with insufficient scrutiny and oversight.

In the ensuring firestorm, embarrassing e-mail messages were made public in which the Air Force secretary, Mr. Roche, said “Go Boeing!” and called opponents of the deal “animals.” Soon afterward, it was reported that the Air Force’s No. 2 weapons buyer, Darleen A. Druyun, had been promised jobs for herself, her daughter and son-in-law in return for steering the tanker contract and billions of dollars of other Air Force business to Boeing. Soon after joining Boeing at a $250,000-a-year post, Ms. Druyun and Michael Sears, Boeing’s former chief financial officer, pleaded guilty in the scandal and received prison terms.

The weight of the scandal caused the Boeing deal to collapse in 2004 and opened the door to competition from the arch-rival European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, which teamed up with Northrop to promote use of Airbus planes as Air Force tankers.

Yeah ... I'll take McCain ... and a few more like him if we can find them.

quote:

Originally posted by sonofhiroshima:

quote:

Originally posted by tickedoffataf:
As a U.S. taxpayer I'd like to know why my hard earned money is headed to Europe to purchase military tankers from Airbus. What on earth are we thinking? Why didn't we just go to China? I'm sure we could have got a cheaper deal from them? Or maybe even Russia, since we are using Russian rocket engines to launch our military satellites using the Atlas V launch vehicles. Yes, I'm sure everyone is aware that we are using Russian built rocket motors to launch our military assets. What do you think the odds are that our friends in France will ever let these tankers fly over France in a time of war? So here we are, we pay to protect the world, we pay for the world's freedom with the blood of American soldiers, and because the rest of the world - especially France - doesn't pay their fair share, now we reward their behavior by sending them our tax dollars to buy Airbus planes to fuel our military aircraft. Message to Congress: Please tell me what your plans are to turn this ridiculous decision around. My goodness, if this deal goes through, you should all be voted out of office.

I take it you don't work for Northrup Grumman, GE jet engines, Honeywell, Alcoa or any of the other 250 American sub-contractors and their 25,000 American workers. Boeing would have subcontracted just as much work and components outside the US as NG and EADS will.

Boeing got their hand slapped trying screw the American Taxpayer out of Billions for the original Lease Back deal for the Tankers back in 2003

Grow up we are living in a global economy, check out where everything you own and use came from, and make a forever promise you will never buy anything on sale or that has a foreign component or from WalMart, Where was your computer made,bet it wasn't made in the good ole' US of A, shame one you.

P.S the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and AirBus 380, the new Corvette, the F22 Raptor was designed with CATIA virtual reality CAD CAM software, CREATED AND PRODUCED in France by Dassault S.A that should give you a couple more sleepless nights.

OK your right. We should get the best deal for the American taxpayer. Maybe you'd like to suggest that we open up all of our military procurement competitions to Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, etc., and if they can meet our specs and provide us with the best value, let's do it! What was I thinking? Your right, country affiliation and background is irrelevant. Let's go global for everything our military buys or uses. I know Russia could help us with our missile defense and hypersonics. They'd be cheaper too. Let's do it!

YGBSM - Politicians and their porkbarrel policies need to be eliminated from the Air Forces acquisition process. Actually, these so called public servants need to be reminded of whom they work for - The AMERICAN taxpayer!! Not some smelly frog, who only bathes once a week (if lucky). This decision is damn near treasonous - IMPEACMENT comes immediately to my mind!!
IF IT AIN'T BOEING - I AIN'T GOING !!