Airbus Deal: A Firing Offense

Source Front Page Magazine.com:

As it happens, there is another ground on which the dismissal of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne could be justified. He was specifically brought in to clean up Air Force procurement, but ended up presiding over a disastrously mishandled procurement of the KC-X next-generation aerial tanker. The decision to award this contract worth conservatively $35 billion to a team led by the European aerospace conglomerate, (Airbus), should be considered a firing offense.

In the next few days, the Government Accountability Office is expected to rule on a protest to that award by the losing bidder, Boeing. If the GAO does its job, there is little doubt it will conclude the Air Force unfairly, even cynically, manipulated the acquisition process so as to enable (Airbus) to compete with an aircraft that did not meet the service's stated requirements and that was significantly more costly to operate.