This tale of woe begins with a fact and a couple of questions.

Fact: The U.S. Air Force needs a new refueling tanker.

Questions: Should the contract go to a company that will use a plane based on the European (EADS) Airbus? Or should it go to Boeing, an American company that’s been building military tankers for decades? If that seems too easy, throw this into the mix. What if those jobs, all 2000 of them, would be located in Alabama if the Airbus style plane were chosen? Well, it appears that’s not going to happen.

A couple of years ago Northrop Grumman / EADS won the Air Force contract and was going to construct a new factory to build the tanker near Mobile. Boeing didn’t like losing that tanker project one bit and fought it at the Pentagon and in the halls of Congress.

The Air Force specifications for the plane got changed and today Northrop Grumman announced it would drop out of the competition rather than submit a new bid.

Alabama officials verbally lashed out at the Pentagon. “I don’t blame Northrop Grumman for refusing to take part in this charade,” Republican Gov. Bob Riley said in a statement. “The Pentagon and White House have made it impossible for any other plane to be competitive. It’s disgraceful.”

The Pentagon defended the program as fair and said both companies could compete effectively. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said the program would not be reworked just to ensure a competition.

“To suggest that the department should conduct a competition that would result in DOD paying a much higher price for capabilities that are not needed simply isn’t effective,” Whitman said.

Riley said if it wasn’t a political decision, “then why would the Pentagon intentionally rewrite the specifications from what they originally wanted a year ago? When the Air Force is compelled by politics to select the slower, smaller and older plane, no one can say with a straight face that this is what’s best for America or America’s warfighters,” Riley said.

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