3000 Jobs & $125 Million a Year Coming to Texas? Maybe not.

The United States needs new air tankers to replace the 50-year old fleet that’s presently responsible for keeping our fighters and bombers refueled and in the air.

Texas has a big stake in the outcome here but the Air Force is dragging its heels on selecting the new design.

They can’t decide between a foreign-made plane and an efficient cost-effective tanker built right here in the U.S. – it shouldn’t be a tough decision.

Boeing Corp. has supplied the U.S. military with American-made tankers for over 75 years. They built the current fleet that has served us admirably for decades. But they are fighting against EADS – a French airliner company that wants to get into the American military market – for this new contract..

They also want to beat our aerospace industry out of the number one slot in the commercial aircraft market.

They want it so bad as a matter of fact that the U.S. government is currently suing them in international court for using illegal subsidies to outbid us.

To make their tanker bid more appealing EADS has partnered up with a U.S. aircraft company in an attempt to convince everyone that their plane is American-made even though most of the work on it will be done in France and other foreign countries.

That brings to mind the old joke about putting lipstick on a pig but that’s unfair. To the pig.

The Boeing tanker would support 44000 U.S. jobs and have a total U.S. content of 85.  The EADS plane would support only 20000 to 25000 U.S. jobs and barely half of its components would be of U.S. origin.

Giving them this contract would cost the U.S. economy approximately $1 billion a year.

Building Boeing’s tanker would support 3000 jobs in Texas and bring $125 million a year into our state. They have specifically designated 13 Texas aerospace companies as potential participants in this project. 

It’s only natural that Texas would play a big role in building this tanker. We’ve been leading the way in aerospace and defense practically from the beginning of manned flight involved in everything from bi-planes to lunar landers.

The Texas aerospace and aviation industry employs about 200000 people and pays them above-average wages. Keeping contracts like this one in the United States & Texas not only helps safeguard our national defense capabilities but also supports a lot of Texas families.

In addition to the economic impact Boeing’s tanker would have it would save taxpayers a bundle of money as well. It’s smaller than the EADS plane and although it far exceeds specifications and more than triples our current capabilities would use less fuel and cost less to maintain.

Gee that’s a tough one.

Fuel cost is a big issue in a plane like this. The Boeing tanker would use an average of $1 million less fuel per plane per year.

The total savings over the life cycle of the aircraft would amount to $10 billion.

Factor in the additional billions saved in maintenance costs and this plane starts to look like a real bargain.  It should not be a tough decision.

If the Air Force needs some advice about what to do here most Americans could likely give them a hand.

But since it probably won’t ask the next best thing is to let our representatives in Congress know that we support an American company and their American employees in this competition.

If they pass the word along to the Air Force maybe we can get this over with and get started building some tankers.

Industry stats from Texasone website.

James B. Cardle is President & CEO of the Texas Citizen Action Network a dynamic community of Texas leaders who develop ideas brainstorm solutions & acquire the skills necessary to impact the public policy decision making process in Texas.  He can be reached by visiting www.CitizenActionNetwork.com or by e-mailing him at lessgovt@austin.rr.com