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Headline:
Boeing Jousting With Airbus For Big Emirates Order

http://www.komotv.com/boeing/story.asp?ID=43108

snip…
Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai-based Emirates, is on a shopping spree for the industry’s newest planes. He recently spent two days in Seattle, where Chicago-based Boeing builds its commercial jets. He arrived there after a two-day stay in Toulouse, France, the headquarters of rival Airbus.

The sheikh is likely pitting the companies against each other on a hunt for the best price. But industry watchers are wondering if the recent rejection of the Dubai ports deal may lead Emirates – or other Arab companies – to spend their billions outside the U.S.

Three points:

1) The law of unintended conesquences is still in effect. Plan accordingly.

2) Go ahead and talk to me about “ports”. UAE has an airline, (with 45 A380s on order), and they fly into NYC – today.

3) If you cant tell the difference between Dubai and Damascus, we have a long way to go in this war.

If you demanded all foreign parts out of military equipment even twenty years ago you would have had nothing left.

Of course we only discover “this” on Bush’s watch.

We can’t even keep AMERICAN companies from sharing the technology with the rest of the world.

If you demanded no foreign parts in the military you would have very little left. Hell with our steel industry crippled by competition with China even that- I doubt- is American made. Throw away the tanks! {actually I was opposed to the steel deal because of national security and the guns and butter issue that FDR faced when having to race to gear up to speed before WW II-but you can’t have everything.} Just as after nearly a century plus of globalization you can’t have completely, purely made in America. That has been a victim of capitalism, efficiency and specialization for DECADES now.

Also this dovetails with exactly what Osama wants; to unify the Arab world against us and hell let’s do it for him by seeing no differences.

Has she ever been to Dubai? Do you know that Qatar has allowed CAOC operations in their country- a huge help- the whole time we have been in the theater?

If you want to paint them in the corner where they are “damned if they do and damned if they don’t”- guess what? It’s going to be a hell of a lot easier for them to say “we don’t”. How the hell are we going to get HUMINT without any friendlies in the area. HUMINT something the lack of everyone was bemoaning immediately after 9/11.

And The Brits have been and had relations with Dubai for a hell of a long time. Some ignorants on blogs were equating Dubai with Afghanistan but it is a couple of centuries more advanced than Afghanistan. They were saying because contractors in Afghanistan could not meet American standards Dubai could not. Ridiculously ignorant of the area. Dubai is CENTURIES apart from Afghanistan but idiots at Polipundit were buying that argument,during the ports deal, hook line and sinker. LCD in action.

It’s getting to be that this blog and the Belmont club are the only blogs I regularly read anymore. I do go to the links and read the articles. It is the lack of this kind of vitriol:

“And for Pierce Bush (the son of Neil Bush) and every other pansy out there who insists this attitude is “xenophobic” or “racist” it’s just as much so as recognizing the Japanese as the enemy in World War II. But of course Neil Bush’s company is in bed with Dubai, but that’s only because those boys are well, boys, and not Jewish.

Outrageous.”

that makes Roger’s blog stand out among the rest.

I am under no illusion that the citizens of Dubai are enlightened and progressive. On the country, the majority of them are bigots and reactionary. Nonetheless, it is foolish to oppose the DPW terminal agreement and Dubaiís involvement in our defense industries. I am more than confident that this particular Arab partner does not not pose anymore of a danger than Great Britain or France. We must not push these people away from us. It is mandatory that America encourages the Arab world to abandon the 8th Century and move into the 21st.

madawaskan is correct, of course, that it would be virtually impossible to build military equipment without foreign-sourced parts. But I do think there’s a real issue here.

It’s been reported that during the Iraq war, a Swiss company refused to supply a critical part for the JDAM missile on grounds of “neutrality.” If a weapons system has critical parts from 15 different countries, and if even one of those countries decides to boyott our military effort, then it could become impossible to continue production in a timely fashion.

This is not an issue for parts that have multiple sources readily available (fasteners, off-the-shelf ICs) but it could be a huge issue for one-of-a-kind parts with long lead times.

My view is that for parts in the latter category, all supply contracts should contain a mandatory clause specifying very large liquidated damages in the event of wilful nonperformance of the contract.

Roger:

We are in a global economy and there is no way to go back to American only manufacturing base. But I have a large concern about farming out defense projects and technologies. Even to now friendly allies. Would this drive up the already large defense spending bill? Yes. But this is our national security and if we are going to hold on to at least one form of manufacturing it should be our ability to build our own planes, tanks and ships. Our defense industry is one area that I think we should hold onto. It has nothing to do with Dubai. I wouldn’t want to hand it over to Norway and Ireland, the land of my forefathers. Abd I am not talking about screws or any other basic building block.And if we have contracts that we must honor then of course we will. But the sooner we can get control of our defense industries the better.

ìBut I have a large concern about farming out defense projects and technologies. Even to now friendly allies.î

Our friendly relations with Great Britain inadvertently made it easier for the Soviet Union to spy on our nuclear bomb program. Philby, MacLean, and Burgess took full advantage of Americaís trusting nature. The Dubai government is far less likely to do similar damage. Its leadership seems just as hostile towards the Islamic nihilists as we are.

Where do we draw the line? What security precautions are already built into our agreements with these foreign companies? Careful distinctions have got to be made.

If a weapons system has critical parts from 15 different countries, and if even one of those countries decides to boyott our military effort, then it could become impossible to continue production in a timely fashion.

My gut feel is that this is correct. It may make sense to farm out the production of many things overseas, but when it comes to the military I would rather keep production of the vital components at home. Same with food, actually, I don’t have a real problem with places like Japan and France trying to stay self-sufficient in food. When the necessities of life or defense are no longer under a nation’s control bad things can, and often do, happen. Up to and including making war to obtain them.

Nothing worthwhile to add (which is a euphamism for “I generally agree” and feel no need to attempt to edumacate the unwashed masses) to the points made above so I’ll just pick a nit.

If what is under discussion here is the Stealth Joint Fight Striker then perhaps we should be discussing the inpact of some sneaky soccer hooligan or somesuch. If, on the other hand, we’re talking about the Joint Strike Fighter, carry on.

BTW, I vaguely recall reading something about some kerfuffle with Britain over the JSF. IIRC, the US was balking at giving the UK the source code for some of the avionics and/or weapons control software and the UK was threatening to drop out of the joint development agreement.