Pentagon official: Tanker bid OK; study suggests otherwise

On the day the Pentagon ousted two U.S. Air Force officials, a study critical of the Air Force’s selection of Northrop Grumman/EADS for a tanker contract was published.

The Economic Policy Institute suggests in Bailing out on America that Northrop’s win means a loss of about 14,000 jobs that could have been created in the country if Boeing had been selected for the tanker contract.

You’ll notice at the end of the report that the institute receives research support both from the Boeing Co. and from the International Association of Machinists, which represents some 24,000 Boeing workers here in the Puget Sound region. A Northrop Grumman official questions the study in this report.

Also on the tanker …

A Pentagon official told reporters that the Air Force made no mistakes in awarding the $35 billion contract to Northrop Grumman and EADS, according to this Reuters report.

Lastly on the tanker …

Two of Boeing’s supporters in Congress, Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., sent a letter to Air Force Secretary Sue Payton telling her the tanker decision “does not pass the common sense test.”