A couple of tanker-related stories caught my eye as I was catching up on e-mail after a long weekend.
Late last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved two nominations of Air Force leaders. Conspicuously absent in the confirmations was the nomination of Michael Donley as Air Force Secretary.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., previously threatened to block Donley’s nomination if Defense Secretary Robert Gates didn’t play fair on the Air Force tanker contract rebid between the Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman and partner EADS.
According to Congress Daily, Cantwell sent Gates a letter and essentially put a hold on the nomination despite not having a seat in the committee.
In other tanker news, Northrop Grumman spent $8.3 million in the second quarter for lobbying purposes, primarily on military procurement programs, reports the Associated Press.
Lastly, EADS’s Louis Gallois had some interesting comments about the Boeing KC-767, in this Wall Street Journal piece.
“I have a big respect for Boeing as an aircraft manufacturer,” he says. “But we have not lost one competition against the 767. We are winning all competitions. I don’t see any reason why the U.S. Air Force could not have the best product.”
On the American vs. European tanker issue, Gallois told the publication the following:
“We are not European, we are not,” he insists, leaning forward so that his chin draws near the tabletop. “We are becoming global. As they [Boeing] are global. Because their [tanker] has parts made in Japan, in China, in Korea, in Italy … Their airplane is global, our airplane is global, and we are living in that world… . And I think Boeing could understand that.”
He laughs at the obviousness of this remark, given that Boeing indicated at Farnborough that it wants to raise the international portion of its defense business to 20% within the next five years from 13% today. “They play global on other airplanes,” Mr. Gallois says. “If they want to play global, they have to play global on all fields.”
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