Congress Needs to Butt-Out of Defense Contract Decisions

There’s been a pretty big uproar on Capitol Hill over the Air Force decision to award a contract for supplying refueling tanker planes to EADS, a European company (and parent of Airbus), instead of good ol’ American Boeing. Congressmen (especially those in districts with Boeing plants) have been calling for an investigation of the decision. Somehow there must have been impropriety involved since the contract was not awarded to an ‘American’ company (nevermind that EADS’s partner, Northrop-Grumman, is based in LA and the tankers will likely be built in Alabama).

These Congressmen need to butt-out. There is a good reason the contract was awarded to EADS. They built a better plane. According to news reports on NPR the EADS entry beat Boeing’s entry in ALL FIVE major requirement areas. Do these people actually think that the Air Force would choose an inferior plane to be its next-generation refueling tanker? It would be ILLEGAL (not to mention monumentally stupid) for them to do so.

Now Congress is trying to play politics with the decision, arguing that the decision ‘hurt’s America’s industrial base’. Although John McCain does not oppose the deal, both Democratic candidates have expressed criticism of the award (article in Time). In my humble opinion, if the Air Force thinks the EADS plane is the best candidate even in an increasingly protectionist environment then they should get the contract. Boeing has been screwing up recently with it’s commercial aircraft, so perhaps the USAF is rightly skeptical about the company’s ability. We need to get the best plane for our Armed Services, regardless of the manufacturer.

Political-Post-Script (can’t help it): While the article in Time only has short snippets Clinton and Obama’s remarks, I think the quotes themselves are a bit telling. Hillary’s is reflexively protectionist, arguing that the plane shouldn’t be ‘outsourced’ (apparently ignoring the quality differential). Obama’s quote is more skeptical, expressing surprise that the Air Force did not think that Boeing did a good job. This may be my political bias, but it seems to express the tones of this political campaign: “My choice no matter what” vs “choose the best one and here’s why I think this one is it…”