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Should defense contracts always go to American companies? Discuss round four of this week's Dust-Up.
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1.
Two American companies competed for a very large contract - one of them won. Northrop Grumman is the Prime for their team, not EADS. Boeing stated they would create 40,000 jobs in the USA, where the Northrop Grumman team has estimated creation of over 48,000 jobs in the USA covering 49 states. Having worked on and built commercial aircraft for both Boeing and EADS, I can say that the American people have not only achieved the best bang for their buck, but the warfighter wins as well.
2. "For America" You need to do a little research. Jobs are not being out sourced to Europe, They a building the friggin assembely plant in Alabama (do you need a geography lesson?) Not only that Airbus has said they they will also be building their new tactical freighter in Alabama by AMERICAN WORKERS! And to the person crying about the infrastructure (hangers, runways, ect.) we are not going to have to build runways all over the world, I do not know where you got that from. If congress thought it would be fair to award this Contract to Northrop Grumman(an AMERCIAN areospace company) then why did they even let them bid 2 years ago?
3. How American should defense contractors be (percentage wise, that is) and which states are more American (Washington or Alabama?) Failure to take the competition sufficiently seriously is the most common reason for failure to win big defense contracts. Be confident that this kind of unpleasant shock will sharpen up the losing bidder for the next big competition.
4. When the Europeans decided to build their own airplanes to replace the C130 , did they asked American firms to bid: NO., they wanted the jobs to go to Europeans. Case closed.
5. Concern among us here is the loud speeches from the politicians about saving jobs in the u.s,a. and then awarding a major multiBILLION dollar contract to an overseas competitor of our own companies..
6. We have lost this war, also. What good does it do to demand that contracts go to a company registered in the US when all the stock is owned off shore?? The entire US Treasury will soon be held off shore!! Remember the Dubai ports dustup? We had already lost and just didn't know it.
7. I think a better question is, does the United States need a defense budget that dwarfs everything on the planet? Do we really need to spend trillions of dollars to buy more planes, tanks and missiles? Corporations are global in nature, Boeing is a monopoly, and there is enough money to go around. money for the taking, more tools of war, the latest model, the newest thing.
8. Capitalism, period. Need I say more. Okay I will. Competition. Okay, one more thing. Americans like to blame other. So, why not blame the French if anything goes wrong....and it will.
9. The RFP was scewed to favor Airbus because they continued to complain and threatened to withdraw from the competition. The Boeing offering allows the pilots to land at many more airports throughout the world and will not require a longer runway. By the time we rebuild runways and hangars as well as pay for the fuel to fly training missions for this plance there is NO WAY this is a better offering for the tax payer! Not to mention the fact that all the higher paying jobs will be in Europe. Terrible decision!!!
10. Richard S, are you happy for European tax euros to be going to American companies, or should we Europeans also be protectionist and stop buying American products? What do you think the consequences would be for American jobs? I say, bring it on. How 'bout you?
Submitted by: J. Andrews
2. "For America" You need to do a little research. Jobs are not being out sourced to Europe, They a building the friggin assembely plant in Alabama (do you need a geography lesson?) Not only that Airbus has said they they will also be building their new tactical freighter in Alabama by AMERICAN WORKERS! And to the person crying about the infrastructure (hangers, runways, ect.) we are not going to have to build runways all over the world, I do not know where you got that from. If congress thought it would be fair to award this Contract to Northrop Grumman(an AMERCIAN areospace company) then why did they even let them bid 2 years ago?
Submitted by: Chris
3. How American should defense contractors be (percentage wise, that is) and which states are more American (Washington or Alabama?) Failure to take the competition sufficiently seriously is the most common reason for failure to win big defense contracts. Be confident that this kind of unpleasant shock will sharpen up the losing bidder for the next big competition.
Submitted by: Tom W
4. When the Europeans decided to build their own airplanes to replace the C130 , did they asked American firms to bid: NO., they wanted the jobs to go to Europeans. Case closed.
Submitted by: enn
5. Concern among us here is the loud speeches from the politicians about saving jobs in the u.s,a. and then awarding a major multiBILLION dollar contract to an overseas competitor of our own companies..
Submitted by: j.e.peterson
6. We have lost this war, also. What good does it do to demand that contracts go to a company registered in the US when all the stock is owned off shore?? The entire US Treasury will soon be held off shore!! Remember the Dubai ports dustup? We had already lost and just didn't know it.
Submitted by: herman
7. I think a better question is, does the United States need a defense budget that dwarfs everything on the planet? Do we really need to spend trillions of dollars to buy more planes, tanks and missiles? Corporations are global in nature, Boeing is a monopoly, and there is enough money to go around. money for the taking, more tools of war, the latest model, the newest thing.
Submitted by: Wilbur Varela
8. Capitalism, period. Need I say more. Okay I will. Competition. Okay, one more thing. Americans like to blame other. So, why not blame the French if anything goes wrong....and it will.
Submitted by: gd
9. The RFP was scewed to favor Airbus because they continued to complain and threatened to withdraw from the competition. The Boeing offering allows the pilots to land at many more airports throughout the world and will not require a longer runway. By the time we rebuild runways and hangars as well as pay for the fuel to fly training missions for this plance there is NO WAY this is a better offering for the tax payer! Not to mention the fact that all the higher paying jobs will be in Europe. Terrible decision!!!
Submitted by: For America
10. Richard S, are you happy for European tax euros to be going to American companies, or should we Europeans also be protectionist and stop buying American products? What do you think the consequences would be for American jobs? I say, bring it on. How 'bout you?
Submitted by: Jim F