Teh Stoopid

From today's AFA Daily Report...

It's Official, KC-X is Three-way Contest: US Aerospace, Inc., a heretofore inconspicuous US aerospace and defense contractor, announced Tuesday that it has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Antonov, the Ukrainian state-owned aerospace giant, to compete for the Air Force's KC-X tanker contract. We first reported yesterday that this was a possibility. The new team joins Boeing and EADS North America in the tanker contest. "Together we can deliver the US Air Force a superior tanker at the most competitive price," said Jerrold Pressman, US Aerospace chairman. The US-Ukrainian pair says it will offer the Air Force three Antonov tanker models: the AN-124-KC, AN-122-KC (a twin-engine AN-124-100 variant), and AN-112-KC (an updated airframe designed specifically to meet KC-X requirements).Antonov would build the airframes in Ukraine, with final assembly at a new US Aerospace facility in the US. No word yet who will supply aerial refueling booms for these tankers. (See also Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog entry)

Yeah... I can just see USAF tanker crews flying Ukrainian-manufactured tankers (you may read that as "Soviet" if'n you happen to be an old Cold Warrior).  Yup, the vision is clear as a bell.  And it's not as unlikely as you might think, Gentle Reader.  I DO believe the lowest-cost bidder is required to win the contract in Federal procurements, barring a meticulously documented reason for failing to meet any given requirement.  Just to cite one example, Lockheed consistently finished third out of three bidders during the evaluation process for the C-5 yet won the contract.  They had the lowest bid.

As for me?  I feel there ought to be a requirement that strategic weapons systems be designed, sourced, and manufactured entirely within the United States.  Period.