Bad news for Northrop ... and Alabama

By Jennifer J. Foster

Alabama received some disheartening and potentially devastating news this morning:

The Government Accountability Office today sustained Boeing Co.‘s protest of the U.S Air Force tanker contract, dealing a major setback to Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS North America, which together planned to assemble the planes in Mobile.

This is a $35 billion—with a B—deal to replace 179 tankers. As CNN reports, the program “could expand to nearly 500 aircraft and more than $100 billion.“

The Air Force raised more than a few eyebrows when it awarded the contract to NG over Boeing in February. Among the complaints Boeing lodged against the NG selection is NG’s plan to use European airframes for the tankers.

It’s unclear what will happen next. The Air Force has 60 days to respond to the non-binding GAO report. But for all the jobs and construction money involved—Boeing has existing operations in many states (including Alabama), and Northrop says its tanker project will employ nearly 50,000 people in 49 states, including more than 1,500 at a new, $600 million EADS assembly plant in Mobile—you can bet that over the next two months, your tax money will be funding a whole lot of calls to industry lobbyists from those congressmen, senators, governors and state and local officials.

This is all based on the news release about the report; the report itself is not available yet. According to the GAO, “The 69-page decision was issued under a protective order, because it contains proprietary and source selection sensitive information. The GAO has directed counsel for the parties to promptly identify information that cannot be publicly released so that GAO can expeditiously prepare and release, as soon as possible, a public version of the decision.“

Read the GAO’s three-page news release here, read CNN’s article here and see Mobile’s local take on it—including reaction from some of the local pols who, no doubt, will be adding NG’s government relations office to their speed dials—here.

ALSO: Want to see how blurry the line between government and industry can be? Check out these quotes:

“We continue to believe that Northrop Grumman offered the most modern and capable tanker for our men and women in uniform.“—Northrop Grumman spokesman Randy Belote

“We continue to believe Northrop-Grumman’s tanker is the superior product for our warfighters.“—Alabama Gov. Bob Riley

Can anyone find a single non-NG-related example of Riley using the term “warfighters?“ I’m guessing ... no.

The Guv had apparently gotten some help from NG folks, who wanted to see him expand on his initial reaction to Bloomberg News: “Oh, God, that’s not good,“ he said, when told of the GAO’s decision.

One guy who was speaking from his own playbook was U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS). He’s a Boeing guy, what with Boeing being the state’s largest employer and all. He called the GAO decision “a huge victory for us,“ offering, “Thanks be to God and the GAO.“