Stunned Boeing Presses USAF to Explain Choice

Boeing is calling for an “immediate debriefing” on the Air Force's choice of a foreign company to build its fuel tankers, Bloomberg reports. The selection of Airbus and Northrop Grumman is to be the subject of a scheduled March 12 meeting, but Boeing says that isn’t protocol. “We would expect this briefing to occur within days, not weeks, of the announcement,” said a company rep.

Congress will hold a hearing on the shake-up tomorrow, but debate is already raging in Washington over the $35 billion decision that some say would send manufacturing overseas, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “The Airbus contract is a European stimulus plan subsidized by the American taxpayer,” said Sen. Patty Murray. But the Defense Department called the decision process “open, fair and detailed.” (More Boeing stories.)