Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, doesn’t appear to be making much progress in persuading Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a native Wichitan, that the Air Force tanker contract needs a pro-Boeing do-over. “All I can say is that I think it would be a real shame if the tanker were to get delayed yet again,†Gates said Monday in Alabama, where the Northrop Grumman-EADS tankers would be assembled. “We’re long past due in terms of getting on with this program.â€
Gates added that the Pentagon was required by law only to consider the technology, capability and costs of the bids. “I think that some things unrelated to what the law says we can consider are being thrown into the mix, at least on Capitol Hill . . . and that’s a concern,†Gates said.
16 Comments
Doesn’t Tankerless Todd have ANY persuasive pull on fellow Republican and fellow Wichitan Robert Gates? I expect that Gates will get what he wants, and Tankerless Todd will swear to our faces - reminiscent of Nixon claiming “I am not a crook” - that he did the “best he could” to reverse the Pentagon’s decision.
Whatever else voters conclude from this economic nightmare for Wichita and Kansas, it should torpedo any claim Tankerless Todd would otherwise offer that his “status” as a veteran Republican on the Appropriations Committee give him unique ability to bring lucrative federal contracts home to Wichita. I hope it will also be manifest that what the 4th district needs most is a new Congressman named Don Betts, who will be a member of the majority party and, therefore, also in a good position to help the Wichita economy through necessary federal contracts that will bring new high-paying jobs to our community.
Isn’t also interesting how quickly and persuasively Mayor Brewer handled with the State Legislature Cessna’s need for public money in order to bring to Wichita 1000 new jobs paying over $70,000 a year? If only previous mayors had done so well when other major Wichita industries had begun to talk about leaving, and did.
It’s over for Tankerless Todd. He’s too creepy a person to work anywhere other than Washington.
Well, maybe he could work at the Circle Cinema. He’d like that.
Educationally and intellectually, Wichita’s Robert Gates (Eagle Scout, A student, PhD) easily trumps Congressman Teahrt, an engineering student flunkout.
However that said, I would rather that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates favored Chicago’s Boeing over Alabama’s Northrup-Gruman Air Bus tanker.
Outsourcing resources and funds is wrong regardless of where it is done. The end result is, the finaces will go overseas. We will pay a foriegn country to do American work. We chase Mexicans of because of this and we praise Gates and Congress for doing the same. Is Gates and Congress the Government of England or America? Has England taken us back to a Dictatorship? Is Clinton the next Queen of America? Barack pays Homage to Africa. Clinton to England. McCain pays Homage to SAUDI ARABIA with Presidential/Queen George “W” Bush. I hope an American steps up and runs for the PRESIDENCY. Go Ralph NADER, the Americans, American!!!!!!!!!!!!! Herbert West III west.herb@yaho.com http://www.wen2k.com
Where was the outrage when McCain got the tanker program delayed for 4 years because the contract was tainted? Looks the same.. tainted contract, only this time the other palms were greased.
Philip - Todd can always return to Boeing. He fits in there quite well.
Well said Ben.
It was Boeing screwed the pooch in losing this contract which they had held for a considerable time.
Too busy micromanaging and abusing their workers, they neglected their R&D and lost out to a BETTER aircraft.
Toad Tiahrt would easily fit right back there where he came from.
Besides being no contest as to the survivability of the aircraft, here are some other reasons Gates is wrong! He may have been born here, but I see no loyalty to his birth city.
Looks like the wrong manuf. was selected.
Boeing KC-767 Tanker: Less Risk for Warfighters, Taxpayers
Thursday April 24, 5:24 pm ET
ST. LOUIS, April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The Boeing (NYSE: BA - News) KC-767 would be a lower-risk aerial refueling tanker for the American military and taxpayers than the Airbus A330-based KC-30, and it would be superior in the areas of cost, production, schedule and capability.
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An analysis of the evaluation that led to the choice of the tanker proposed by the team of Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) reveals that numerous irregularities in the process resulted in a higher-risk, higher-cost aircraft being selected. Those irregularities form the basis of a protest Boeing filed with the Government Accountability Office following the contract award announced on Feb. 29.
“We offered a tanker that exceeded the mission requirements, kept the manufacturing risk as low as possible and offered an aircraft that saved billions of taxpayer dollars,” said Gregg Rusbarsky, director of Boeing’s U.S. Air Force Tanker Program. “Compare that with EADS-Northrop, who have never delivered the core technology for aerial refueling — a working air-to-air refueling boom.”
When calculating risk, the contract decision failed to account for multiple manufacturing challenges the A330-based tanker is likely to encounter. EADS and Northrop will need to integrate different corporate partners, numerous factory sites, different cultures and technical standards, all into a single enterprise that is expected to deliver aerial tankers on time and on budget.
KC-30 production would be managed by two companies on two continents in five countries, separated by one ocean. According to EADS-Northrop, the initial production plan will build the first six aircraft in five different ways. The first tanker will be assembled as a passenger plane by Airbus in Toulouse, France, converted to a freighter in Dresden, Germany, converted to a tanker in Madrid, Spain, and flown to Melbourne, Fla., for finishing. For aircraft 2 and 3, Madrid’s involvement will be eliminated, and Melbourne will do the tanker conversion — for the first time. By aircraft 4, Mobile, Ala., will replace Melbourne, and for the first time, begin the tanker conversion. Production will vastly change when the process converts from a modification to an in-line production system at the start of low-rate assembly. Finally, the basic aircraft will likely change from the passenger A330 to the A330 Freighter, so the aircraft would have a real cargo floor for the first time. This presents extreme challenges for configuration control and U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification, yet this approach was rated equal in risk to the less risky, more efficient Boeing plan.
Not only has Boeing built or upgraded more than 2,000 operational tankers to include recent delivery of two KC-767s to Japan, the company has also delivered more than 100 commercially derived military aircraft to the U.S. military and all have passed rigorous FAA certification requirements. Boeing has also delivered five commercial derivatives of the initial 767 airplane.
Additionally, Boeing has met all the manufacturing requirements requested by the Air Force, including an independent analysis by The Rand Corp. that was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense. Rand had recommended an export-compliant in-line manufacturing approach for the new tanker.
A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (http://www.boeing.com/ids/) is one of the world’s largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32.1 billion business with 71,000 employees worldwide.
What would really be a hoot, is if Todd were to be informed that his old job was transferred in the boeing sale, and he did not get an offer!
Just the fact that Gates is in Alabama giving his Tanker talk shows how political this thing is. He should be speaking in Kansas, asking forgiveness.
“Gates added that the Pentagon was required by law only to consider the technology, capability and costs of the bids”
Besides the very basic fact that these criteria evolved and morphed during the competition, Gates should have pointed out, “Why is Kansas bitchin about it now, their Senators had no qualms with changing the bidding rules proposed by Sen. McCain?”
I propose a City rsolution stripping Gates of his Wichita citizenship!
BAGHDAD - Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for an end to Iraqi bloodshed on Friday and said his threat of an “open war” applies only to U.S.-led foreign troops — stepping back from a full-blown confrontation with the government over a crackdown against his followers.
Didn’t Bush say the Iraqis want to be occupied?
The facts suggest he’s lying again.
“The facts suggest he’s lying again.”
BAD GRAMMER. To say ‘lying again’ would imply that at some point in time he had STOPPED lying. The more correct useage would be:
“The facts suggest he’s still lying.”
Is there anyone in Iraq that we’re not fighting? Fighting, the Shiites, fighting the Sunnis, sometimes Al-Quida, sometimes Saudi Wahabi, sometimes Iran.
Phantom - we’re not ighting the Kurds - at least not yet. But our allies in Turkey are.