The Cold War Long Over, Russian Firm Will Make Air Force Bid

Russian cold warrior Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev is long dead and with him the battle he fought with John Kennedy when Soviet–US military tensions were at their apex. Those times are remote enough in memory that a Russian aerospace company will actually bid for the Air Force contract to build a new tanker. For a time, it looked like Boeing (BA) would handle the project. Its major rival, Northrup Grumman (NOC), dropped out because it did not think it could profit from a government contract to design and build the new plane.

The Wall Street Journal and other media report that “United Aircraft Corp. of Russia is planning to bid on the $40 billion contract.” US is a group of firms controlled by the central government.

The bid will probably fail for the same reasons that a Northrup/EADS one did last year. EADS is a European company and many members of Congress did not want the jobs for building the tanker to go overseas. Political pressure scuttled what appeared to be a winning bid from Northrup/EADS. United Aircraft will almost certainly have to make sure that most of the work on the tanker will be done in America if it has any chance of weathering pressure on the Air Force from Congressman who have Boeing factories in their districts.

There are also security questions about whether the design specifications of an American military plane could be given to any Russian firm, so the Cold War is really not over at all.

Douglas A. McIntyre