Archives
Recent
KC-X
The Air Force will announce the winner of the $35 billion KC-X tanker contract on Thursday, February 24 after financial markets close. Judging from the frequency with which Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter has been talking up the notion of a "globalized" defense market recently, European
. . . Read more
Date:
2/22/2011
Senior executives at Boeing have grown pessimistic about their prospects for prevailing in the latest Air Force tanker competition. Their counterparts at competitors EADS -- the parent company of Airbus -- are correspondingly confident. This is surprising, because the Boeing entry in the competition
. . . Read more
Date:
12/7/2010
Later this week, the House of Representatives will decide whether the Pentagon should be directed to consider European aircraft subsidies in comparing proposals to develop the Air Force's next aerial-refueling tanker. If you think that sounds boring, then you probably don't understand what has
. . . Read more
Date:
5/25/2010
The United States has lost an average of over a thousand manufacturing jobs every day since the new millennium began. Most of those losses resulted not from productivity gains or other positive trends, but rather from America's decline as a manufacturing power. During the last 30 years, the portion
. . . Read more
Date:
5/20/2010
Remember two months ago when Northrop Grumman announced it was pulling out of a partnership with Franco-German aerospace giant EADS to supply the Air Force's next aerial-refueling tanker? The reason Northrop executives gave for withdrawing was that the government's request for proposals favored
. . . Read more
Date:
5/17/2010
There has been a lot of loose talk recently about the possibility that Airbus parent EADS might bid in the latest round of tanker competition even without former partner Northrop Grumman in order to establish a bigger "footprint" in the U.S. military market or make a favorable impression on Pentagon
. . . Read more
Date:
4/12/2010
The European media are in an uproar today following Northrop Grumman's decision to pull out of the Air Force's tanker competition. Much of the commentary accepts at face value the charge made by Northrop and European aerospace conglomerate EADS that the solicitation favored Boeing, and then jumps
. . . Read more
Date:
3/10/2010
Northrop Grumman's leaders hated pulling out of the Air Force's tanker competition on Monday. Having spent four years and $200 million positioning their team to be a credible contender, company leaders desperately wanted to fight and win. But they simply couldn't find a solution to the government's
. . . Read more
Date:
3/9/2010
The Boeing Company released details of its proposed next-generation tanker on Thursday that underscored just how tough it will be for Northrop Grumman to prevail in the next round of competition. Every feature of the Boeing plane seems calculated to maximize its competitive advantage under the
. . . Read more
Date:
3/4/2010
After four years and $200 million in expenses, Northrop Grumman may have reached a dead end in its bid to build the Air Force's future aerial-refueling tanker. That can't come as a total surprise to newly-minted CEO Wes Bush, who doubted the wisdom of pursuing the tanker contract from day one.
. . . Read more
Date:
2/26/2010
Even before the defense department unveiled its final strategy for acquiring a new aerial-refueling tanker yesterday, Northrop Grumman was deep into preparations for announcing that it would not bid. Pentagon officials had sent Northrop and its rival, Boeing, clear signals that the final acquisition
. . . Read more
Date:
2/25/2010
A draft overview of the defense department's fiscal 2011 budget request highlights a handful of weapons programs as key to current and future military operations. The document was leaked last week, but media reports have only mentioned a small portion of its content. The chapter of the overview
. . . Read more
Date:
1/27/2010