Representative Asks For Tanker Bid Delay

August 24, 2008 by admin · Comment
Filed under: Contract Awards, EADS, Military Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, U.S. Air Force 

U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Courtney, from Connecticut, has written to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to ask him to delay the renewed bidding for the $35 billion aerial refueling tanker contract. “It is important to get this decision right,” Courtney said, because it is “one of the most critical components of our national security.” Courtney is particularly concerned that there be adequate time for the RFP “to be vetted by the competitors and evaluated by Congress.”

The Pentagon is committed to a quick timetable, but Courtney argues that such an “unnecessarily aggressive timeline for a final decision, will once again tilt the outcome” in favor of EADS. Courtney is very interested in the process, because the Boeing tanker’s engines would be made by East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney.

More details on Courtney’s letter can be found at Hartford Business.

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US law prevents Australia from acquiring F-22

February 25, 2008 by Dagpotter · Comment
Filed under: Australia, Department of Defense, FMS, Federal Budget Process, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, U.S. Air Force, production program 

Australia has expressed an interest in procuring F-22 Raptor aircraft. Currently they are planning on buying JSF ultimately. Currently US law prevents the export of the F-22. In this article from News.com.au, the US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, expresses the sentiment that Australia would be good stewards of the F-22 if they received them. Obviously the law is to prevent the transfer of what is considered the best technology that the US has, but there are certain allies in the past that have been able to share it. As previously discussed technical transfer laws have become very restrictive and have affected US programs.

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