Word: northrop
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...been. The Air Force has repeatedly fumbled the $35 billion competition between aerospace giants Boeing and Northrop-Grumman to build 179 new tankers. After pressure from Senator John McCain, who said the Air Force's plan to lease tankers from Boeing was a waste of taxpayer money, the Air Force in 2004 scuttled those plans. Then the service decided to buy them from Northrop Grumman last February, only to have the deal derailed in June after government auditors concluded Boeing's charges of an unfair competition were justified...
...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...
...time of their capture, all three men had been working for Northrop Grumman, a defense contractor, which continues to pay the families their salaries. Former Grumman pilots have criticized the company for using single-engine planes over such dangerous turf. In March 2003, three Grumman employees died in a single-engine-plane crash during a search for the hostages. (The U.S. now requires that twin-engine aircraft be used there.) But the hostages' families ask why the Bush Administration didn't provide more military backup on the contractors' Colombian missions. "Did they really never think this sort of thing could...
...deal will support 25,000 U.S. jobs, but Boeing says it would have created more.) Underscoring the sensitivity of the topic on Capitol Hill, a top Air Force official addressing a House hearing on Wednesday referred to the winning bid using only the name of its American partner. "Northrop Grumman brought their A-game" to the competition, said Air Force procurement chief Sue Payton. Critics were unimpressed: "Northrop's a front," countered Rep. Dave Hobson, R-Ohio...