Why didn’t the Air Force consider these obvious questions about national security and economic security?
The Los Angeles Times today suggests an answer. It reports on the front page today that EADS and its partner Northrop Grumman may have played a role in narrowing the scope of what the Air Force looked at. In fact, the Times reports that Northrop executives ensured that the Air Force wouldn’t ask the competitors how government subsidies would help pay for the design and development of the tanker – the subject of the very WTO dispute I mentioned. And according to the same article, Northrop made threats in order to shape the criteria the Air Force followed. The Times reports, “Northrop threatened at one point to pull out of the competition if the Air Force didn’t change the way the aircraft would be evaluated.” Did the Air Force pull a bait and switch with this contract? Did it unfairly change the process to benefit EADS? Closing Mr. President, I believe there are too many serious questions about the selection process. As U.S. Senators, it is our job to consider the future of our national
