Could it have been because of hair brained give aways to Europe that our economy is suffering? Giving away our military technology to be built by a foreign government..and OUR government okayed it..
Here take our money and build our airplanes for military combat, we don't need the money, but you do. and you need to know all our military secrets.
This stinks of politic big time..way over big time.
Airbus picks Alabama site for tanker factory
Published: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2005
WASHINGTON: The parent company of European aircraft maker Airbus said Wednesday that it selected Mobile, Alabama, over three other Southern sites for a $600 million (?495 million) factory to build refueling tankers.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. selected the Alabama site over three rival bids from Melbourne, Florida; Kiln, Mississippi; and North Charleston, South Carolina.
|Ralph D. Crosby, chairman and CEO of EADS North America, said Mobile was chosen because it is "strategically located" on the Gulf of Mexico, and offers a skilled workforce, airport runways and a deep-water port. Brookley Industrial Complex provides 4.5 million square feet (405,000 square meters) of industrial space, and includes access to the Mobile downtown airport.
An Airbus engineering center will be built nearby and is expected to open in 2006, the company said.
The company plans to "continue our relationship" with the other bidders through a five-year university cooperative internship program conducted in Mobile, Crosby said. Each state will receive a five-year, $100,000 (?82,570) grant to fund the internships.
Gov. Bob Riley were on hand for the announcement here.
"This victory catapults Alabama toward a new era of growth in the aerospace and defense industries," Riley said in a statement.
During a recent visit to a proposed site near Charleston International Airport, the head of the company's defense division said the contract would be a boon. In addition, the winning community could land as many as 1,000 jobs if the company gets part of a military contract to manufacture KC-330 tankers.
"You're bringing in a whole bunch of top-level jobs. It was our opinion we did not want it to appear as if we cut some deal," said David Oliver Jr., chief executive for EADS North American Defense.
EADS, which is based in France and Germany, has said it plans to offer a tanker version of its Airbus A330 passenger jet for the multibillion-dollar Air Force contract to produce a new generation of aerial refueling tankers.
Chicago-based Boeing Co. lost the tanker deal last year, after revelations that it had hired a top Air Force acquisitions official who later admitted giving the company preferential treatment.
The immensely public search gave EADS some much-needed positive spin at a time when the U.S. and the European Union are engaged in a trade battle over the EU's subsidies to Airbus, which the U.S. claims gives it an unfair advantage over its chief rival, Boeing.
EADS hopes to get a substantial portion of an expected $9 billion (?7.43 billion) in new spending for military tanker planes, but congressional leaders are trying to tie the subsidy debate to the contract decision.
"My only guess is the openness is political," said Charles Hill, a professor at the University of Washington School of Business who closely follows the aeronautics industry.
"They are trying to send a message," he said. "Their strategy is to have quite a bit of work done in the United States. It is clear they want to be seen as a global organization, not just a European one."
EADS and subsidiaries already have facilities in Mississippi and Alabama. EADS-owned American Eurocopter LLC opened a helicopter factory in Columbus, Mississippi, last year, and EADS North America this year invested in a new support center for Coast Guard patrol aircraft in Mobile near the proposed site for the tanker factory.
EADS owns 80 percent of Toulouse, France-based Airbus, and Britain's BAE Systems PLC owns the remaining 20 percent.
iht.com |
