News Archives
March 7, 2008
Statement By President Charles Wowkanech On The $35 Billion Award To Manufacture U.S. Air Force Tanker Fleet On Foreign Soil
I was personally outraged as I read an article in my local newspaper on Monday, regarding a recent decision by the U.S. Air Force regarding the purchase of replacement tankers for its aging KC-135 and KC-10 tanker fleet. They awarded a $35 billion aerial refueling tanker program to Northrop Grumman and its European partner, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), the parent company to Airbus. This decision will have a tremendous impact on American jobs and our economy, and on the security of our nation.
Boeing Corporation, which has supplied the Pentagon with refueling tankers for nearly 50 years, also submitted a competitive bid to the Air Force, which would have provided an important boost to the domestic aerospace industry and the high-skill, high-wage union jobs associated with that industry. It is estimated that Boeing tankers would have been built with over 85 percent domestic U.S. content and would support more than 44,000 U.S. jobs and 300 contractors in over forty states. The EADS proposed tanker, based on the Airbus A330, will be constructed of European components that will be shipped to the U.S. for final assembly, resulting in significantly fewer U.S. jobs.
Furthermore, as a United States citizen, I am shocked by the Air Forces’ intent to move the manufacturing of military aircraft to foreign soil, giving other countries the ability to slow down our military capacity, especially during a time of war and the necessity of heightened security. Specifically, to reward France with a business deal, after they opposed the United States’ position on the Iraq War and allowed our soldiers to enter the battlefields alone, this decision is unexplainable and reckless.
While I am pleased to see that the decision to award the contract to a company overseas has led to calls for an examination by Congress, I urge all members of our Congressional Delegation to block the funding of this fiscally irresponsible and security-weakening deal. Additionally, I hope that our representatives take a hard look at federal procurement laws that allow government contracts to be awarded to foreign entities.