Tanker Truths

25 Mar 2008
Corrections of retired Rear Admiral's misstatements and false assertions
In a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal criticizing the Journal for its endorsement of Northrop Grumman's winning bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force, a retired Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy makes a staggering number of false statements about Northrop Grumman's win, his errors and dissembling taken straight from Boeing's playbook of disinformation. Retired Rear Admiral Paul W. Rohrer's mistakes, misstatements and false assertions are corrected here.

Allegation: Rohrer alleges the contract was won by "French aerospace EADS and its minority partner Northrop." FACT: El Segundo, California-headquartered Northrop Grumman won the contract. EADS is a key subcontractor working alongside more than 200 American suppliers.

Allegation: Rohrer charges that EADS "has received tens of billions of dollars in illegal subsidies from the French and other European governments." FACT: EADS received no subsidies whatsoever in connection with the tanker contract. Instead, it received loans, which were repaid in full, with interest, last year. What's more, those loans have always been clearly disclosed on EADS' publicly available financial forms.

Allegation: Rohrer falsely claims that Northrop Grumman's win will "undercut U.S. contractors, kill U.S. jobs, and undermine free and fair trade." Fact: Northrop Grumman's win will support 48,000 jobs in the U.S., and no jobs are outsourced to Europe. Here in America, Northrop Grumman's win means 230 contractors in 49 states will be working on the project.

Allegation: Rohrer makes erroneous claims about "the dangers this contract poses to national security," and falsely claims that EADS lobbied the Pentagon and persuaded it to give it exemption from the Berry Amendment, which requires domestic processing by contractors of certain specialty metals, like titanium, for national security reasons. FACT: No military technology whatsoever will be exported as a result of this contract. In addition, EADS North America is fully compliant with all U.S. Industrial and export/import regulations — including the Berry Amendment.

Allegation: Rohrer takes up Boeing's tired misstatement about how the contracting process was changed in "midcourse" to "tilt the process in favor" of Northrop Grumman. FACT: As Air Force officials made abundantly clear in announcing Northrop Grumman's win on February 29, both companies were constantly apprised of what the Air Force was looking for in a new tanker, what its selection criteria would be, and any and all changes under consideration. Boeing had every opportunity to protest the Air Force criteria while the bidding process was ongoing, but didn't do so. In other words, they were for the competition before they were against it. And they turned against it only after they lost.

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