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Government
Trump cancels Boeing-Air Force One deal in a tweet
2016-12-07
They're agog at this out there in the world beyond our borders, for some reason. All my sources ran a story on it.
[Iran Press TV] US President-elect Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
has ripped a deal between aircraft manufacturing company Boeing and US Air Force One.

In a tweet on Tuesday, the future president said the deal has costs that are "out of control," calling them "ridiculous" later.

"Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!"

When asked later about his tweet in the lobby of Trump Tower, he reaffirmed to news hounds that "Well the plane is totally out of control."

"I think Boeing is doing a little bit of a number. We want Boeing to make a lot of money but not that much money," he said.
Herewith the renegotiation begins.
Air Force One, the official air traffic control call sign for a US Air Force aircraft carrying the president, was about to spend as much as $1.65 billion for a project aimed at replacing the force’s planes but Boeing said later it was under a $170 million contract.

"We are currently under contract for $170 million to help determine the capabilities of these complex military aircraft that serves the unique requirements of the President of the United States," the Boeing statement said. "We look forward to working with the US Air Force on subsequent phases of the program allowing us to deliver the best planes for the President at the best value for the American taxpayer."

Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Don Calamari's lawyer was getting even redder in the face...
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said," Some of the statistics that have been cited, shall we say, don't appear to reflect the nature of the financial agreement between Boeing and the Department of Defense," Earnest said, according to pool reports."

"I think the American people would expect that future US presidents would benefit from unique and upgraded capabilities while they are traveling and representing the interests of the United States around the world."

After Trump’s Tuesday tweet, Boeing's stocks fell 1 percent in premarket.

Posted by:Fred

#11  Disclaimer, I work for Boeing. But we need a little truth on the subject. Boeing works the design, the bells and whistles, as specified in the SOW. Boeing does not dream up the equipment that must be integrated into the aircraft, nor does it outline the EMP, laser, weapons, and other survivability systems built into the design. The Pentagon defines the requirements. Boeing is under contract to design the aircraft, and to see if all that is required is possible. The cost of this is by design, and yes Boeing is not cheap, but it will be correct.
Second point, after I politely threw the pentagon under the bus. Just where do we say enough is enough with the systems in the aircraft when the president is on board? The new threats, high power lasers, EMP,EMP tracking missiles, Unmanned weapons, etc... All have been developed after the latest version of Air Force one hit the street. Which vulnerability do you want to allow? Times have changed since the doomsday bird of the 70's and the air force one requirements of today. These birds are going to be pricy. And finally the numbers are not correct. The average cost of a green 747-8 is over $300 million.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2016-12-07 19:10  

#10  Not to be unpatriotic, but DJT could probably get a screamin' deal from Airbus on an A380 right about now ( sales dropping like flies, production down to 1 a month due to loss of interest by airlines)
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2016-12-07 15:02  

#9  Somebody remind me how they can make B-52s fly for 50-60 years. Not so many golf trips, or buzzing Manhattan?
Posted by: Bobby   2016-12-07 12:48  

#8  Saw a post (can't find it now) from a military guy.

We have 4 747 doomsday planes with all the stuff needed to run the country/military after a nuclear war that can fly almost 24/7 (with refueling). We bought them for just under a billion in 1998 dollars.

Now we can't make 2 air force grade 747s for less than 3.7 billion? Something doesn't add up.
Posted by: DarthVader   2016-12-07 12:41  

#7  one of the horrible things about this sort of contract is that a lot of costs are in the design phase

the contractor gets an order to design something
costs incurred in the design
customer says, 'oh just add this do hickey'
costs incurred in redesign which sometimes requires almost starting over
custormer says, 'oh and make the such a such larger'
and so it goes until a $ billion has been spent and the only deliverables are sets of plans and specs that have been superceded
Posted by: lord garth   2016-12-07 12:29  

#6  Then there's the prayer mat that constantly repositions to point to Mecca during flight...
Posted by: Glenmore   2016-12-07 11:47  

#5  They're agog at this out there in the world beyond our borders, for some reason...

They can't understand why he wouldn't want to get more graft from more change orders. "Why not add a $500 million pool table - wink, wink?"
Posted by: Bobby   2016-12-07 11:46  

#4  Their inflated costs are also used to cover activities intended to remediate poor original design and planning oversight Glenmore, as part of a low-bidding strategy.

"Oh, you want a refrigerator?"
("Let's expand the wiring harness, upgrade the power conduit, add a breaker and GFCI then build a load footprint and vertical anchor framework.")
"Do you want a chilled water feed in that?"
Posted by: Skidmark   2016-12-07 11:44  

#3  I suspect costs escalated dramatically since the contract was signed - 'change orders' are very expensive and very common with government contracts, so much so that I am convinced they are an intended way of awarding contracts and favors.
Posted by: Glenmore   2016-12-07 11:28  

#2  In military nomenclature its called a 'warning order'. You better start making preparations and planning yesterday.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2016-12-07 08:50  

#1  ...Some thoughts:

1. Trump's right.
2. He didn't cancel anything; he hasn't the power to do so - at least not for a few more weeks, but if the nice people at Boeing have any sense at all they'll use those weeks to come up with a new price. I don't expect them to lose money, but there's no fracking way two airliners on steroids cost north of four billion.
3. The USAF needs to take that time and make some tough decisions too. Better on their own now than have it done for them later.

Mike

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski   2016-12-07 04:54  

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