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Tanker
Airpower isn’t just for fighting wars. It is also a vital means of combating wildfires. Fleets of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft provide the heavy water power that can turn the tide against major fire. Many wildfires occur in difficult to reach terrain; aerial tankers provide one of the few
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Date:
5/29/2012
The Kansas congressional delegation is angry that Boeing has decided to close its aircraft plant in Wichita, and it should be. Throughout a decade-long struggle to secure the Air Force's next-generation tanker contract, the delegation vigorously supported Boeing's bid because the company said it
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Date:
1/10/2012
When a five-foot hole opens up in the fuselage of a commercial airliner, it gets the media’s and public’s attention. In general, the possibility that metal fatigue in older aircraft can result in such hull failures comes as no surprise to airline personnel and aviation experts. The stresses imposed
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Date:
4/5/2011
European aerospace giant EADS did American taxpayers and warfighters a big favor today by deciding not to protest its recent loss of the Air Force's tanker competition. As EADS North America Chairman Ralph D. Crosby put it in a press release, "We will not take any action that could further delay
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Date:
3/4/2011
Industry insiders say that Boeing clinched the hard-fought battle for the Air Force's next-generation tanker last week by offering a rock-bottom price while rival EADS failed to bid as aggressively. Boeing had an intrinsic pricing advantage because it offered a smaller plane that cost much less
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Date:
3/1/2011
Within minutes after the Air Force announced that Boeing had won the tanker competition yesterday, Politico put a story on their web-site suggesting that the main reason many people thought Boeing would lose was my frequent predictions of an EADS victory. The story may have over-estimated my
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Date:
2/25/2011
The defense department has done a masterful job of keeping its tanker deliberations under wraps, so nobody should assume they know what will be announced today at 5:00. EADS expects to win and Boeing does not, but their expectations were confounded the last time such an award was made, and the same
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Date:
2/24/2011
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
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Date:
2/22/2011
The World Trade Organization today released a final ruling on commercial transport subsidies received by Boeing. The ruling will remain confidential until translated into variety of languages, so only the parties to the case brought by European governments have seen it. However, the ruling probably
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Date:
1/31/2011
The Air Force is likely to announce the winner of its tanker competition in March -- the same timeframe in which the World Trade Organization (WTO) will release two different reports casting Airbus business practices in a negative light. The first WTO report, which has already been completed, will
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Date:
1/20/2011
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
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Date:
12/7/2010
Last week, U.S. aerospace giant Boeing and its European counterpart, EADS, submitted proposals to supply the Air Force's next-generation aerial-refueling tanker. The service plans to buy 179 modified commercial transports in the first phase of a multi-decade program that eventually will replace
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Date:
7/12/2010
The world's preeminent trade body today released a detailed report documenting that European commercial-transport producer Airbus has engaged in predatory, illegal trade practices since it was first established in the 1970s. The World Trade Organization (WTO) said that Airbus has received a range
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Date:
6/30/2010
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
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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
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Date:
5/20/2010
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
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Date:
4/12/2010
There were numerous media reports last week that Airbus parent-company EADS might bid alone against Boeing in the Pentagon's pending tanker competition. It's a tough call for EADS managers, because the company's prospects have dimmed significantly since partner Northrop Grumman dropped out of the
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Date:
3/29/2010
The World Trade Organization report condemning European subsidies to Airbus contains a section detailing how the A330 widebody transport was developed using practices banned by current trade agreements. Airbus parent-company EADS has proposed the A330 as a candidate for the Air Force's next-generation
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Date:
3/24/2010
Although Northrop Grumman employees are deeply disappointed that they could not build a convincing business case for bidding in the Air Force's pending tanker procurement, there is one big advantage to pulling out now. When the World Trade Organization releases its final report on Airbus subsidies
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Date:
3/19/2010
This week the normally thoughtful, balanced, even sophisticated journal The Economist published a piece on the decision by Northrop Grumman and EADS to withdraw from the competition for a new U.S. aerial refueling tanker. The headline was “The Best Plane Lost.” The publication asserted that
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Date:
3/19/2010
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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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Date:
2/25/2010