Word: northrop
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...thing that has got to be clear is that there are more than one manufacturer of ADIRUs, and the ADIRU manufacturer for the Qantas case is not the same for the Air France case," he tells TIME. As reported in the aviation trade magazine Air Transport News, manufacturer Northrop Grumman makes the ADIRUs for Qantas, and Honeywell for Air France. "There are no similarities in ADIRUs between the two cases," says Dubon. (Q&A: How to survive a plane crash...
...shouldn't be forced to pay on behalf of taxpayers any price for any level of deficient performance." Still, that's just what the Navy did, forking over an additional $100 million to make it seaworthy after the Navy had taken delivery of the vessel from its builder, Northrop Grumman, in 2006. The service said it needed the new ship to replace an older one it was retiring and could finish the work more cheaply in its own shipyard. The Navy has blamed Northrop Grumman for poor work; the company has blamed the Navy for a constantly changing design...
...Most recently, Boeing has said it needs six months - not the 45 days offered by the Pentagon - to draft a new bid for a larger tanker than it originally offered (Northrop-Grumman's bigger plane had given it an edge). Boeing had threatened to pull out of the competition entirely if it didn't get additional time. That would have forfeited the contract to Northrop Grumman, but it also would have galvanized Boeing's congressional allies into opposing the sole-source award to Northrop, whose partner on the tanker project is Europe's Airbus consortium...
...Boeing praised the decision ("it will best serve the war fighter") while Northrop grumbled, saying it was "extremely disappointed - especially on behalf of our men and women in uniform who will now be denied a critically needed new tanker for years." Meanwhile, the Air Force resigned itself to flying ancient airplanes even longer. "I don't care which tanker wins," Air Force General Arthur Lichte, a one-time tanker pilot who now heads the Air Mobility Command, sighed last week. "I just need a new tanker...
...Pentagon only buys what's best for the troops, Gates' decision suggests what critics of the procurement process have long said - that major defense purchases are salted through with political implications ("This is a very political decision," Lichte said). That's especially true in the tanker contract, because Northrop Grumman's partnership with the Airbus consortium led to complaints that jobs would be lost overseas. It also makes clear that Gates' June decision to take away the Air Force's power to pick the winner and reserve it for himself wasn't sufficient to salve the wounds...