From: Business Week
Boeing’s Audacious Allies
Supporters of the planemaker cry foul when it loses a U.S. military contract to a foreign rival, but 70% of its commercial Dreamliner is made overseas
When is globalization a bad word? To Boeing (BA) backers, it’s when the competition—a consortium led by European Aeronautic Defence & Space (EADS) and Northrop Grumman (NOC)—wins the battle for a lucrative U.S. Air Force contract for airborne-refueling planes. Ever since the Air Force announced its decision on Feb. 29, Americans from Seattle to Capitol Hill have railed about lost jobs and the risks of foreign-made military assets.
But what about when Boeing wins a big contract? You don’t hear many complaints then, despite the fact that large portions of the parts and labor in its commercial planes come from overseas—70% of Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner and 60% of other models are made outside the U.S. Even many of Boeing’s military planes have many foreign parts in them.
