Northrop Grumman Corp. defended its winning of the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker contract, which could be worth $40 billion. Northrop and France-based Airbus beat out heavily favored Boeing for the contract. Some US lawmakers say the huge KC-45A aircraft contract should not be given to a team with a foreign company -- Airbus, which is owned by EADS -- as the major partner. EADS and Airbus are based in France.
Northrop says it needs to counter inaccurate statements floating around the debate. Here's what Northrop says:
- The Northrop KC-45A tanker program will create a new aerospace manufacturing corridor in the southeastern United States.
- The KC-45A program helps return competitiveness to the U.S. aerospace industry.
- The Northrop KC-45A tanker program does not transfer any jobs from the United States to France or any other foreign country.
- The KC-45A tanker will support more than 25,000 jobs in the United States.
- The KC-45A U.S. supplier base will include 230 companies in 49 states.
- Assembly and militarization of the KC-45A tanker will take place in Mobile, Ala., resulting in the in-sourcing of approximately 2,000 jobs from Europe to the United States.
- The KC-45A competition underwent the most rigorous, transparent acquisition process in U.S. Department of Defense history.
- Throughout the process, both competitors in the KC-45A acquisition hailed the Air Force for conducting a fair and open competition.
- All modern jetliners are built from a global supplier base and the two entrants in the KC-45A competition are no exception. The Boeing tanker includes parts manufactured in Japan, United Kingdom, Canada and Italy.
- The Northrop tanker includes parts built in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and France.
- The Northrop KC-45A will include approximately 60 percent U.S. content. It is America’s tanker.
- There are numerous examples of transatlantic cooperation on vital U.S. military programs. Foreign suppliers currently play essential roles in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter. In fact, on the C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft program, Boeing is responsible for producing the Alenia Aeronautica (Italy) aircraft in Jacksonville, Fla.
- No sensitive military technology will be exported to Europe. For the KC-45A program, a commercial A330 jetliner will be assembled by American workers in EADS’s facility in Mobile. The aircraft will then undergo military conversion in an adjacent Northrop facility. All of the KC-45A’s critical military technology will be added by an American company, Northrop, in America, in Mobile Ala.
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