Let's put a pin in this "the A330 was a symptom of NIH"...and NIH altogether!

This issue has been bugging the hell outta me.  It flared up today in a discussion about the A330.

Trust me.  I only followed this story on the edges but I have read enough commentary from guys that DO know this subject well and THIS WAS NOT A CASE OF NOT INVENTED HERE!

That type thinking needs to be banished forever.  To recap.  The USAF wrote a solicitation for a next gen tanker.  AirBus along with their paid trolls littered the airways with talk about how it would apply great synergy with our allies.

Boeing looked fried.  It was damn near obvious that the USAF wanted the AirBus Tanker.

But a funny thing happened.

The A330 MRTT was too big for the solicitation!  As a matter of fact it was another one of those tweener aircraft that AirBus specializes in.  Bigger than the KC-135 it was replacing, but smaller (slightly) than the DC-10 that this program wasn't covering.

Long short?

The USAF rigged their competition and selected AirBus.  The airplane didn't fit any of the specs they laid out but they selected it anyway.  Boeing protested and won.  The USAF tried to rewrite the solicitation but gave up cause they would have let the cat out of the bag that they were going for a European solution.

Personally I don't care.

Why?

Because European corporations always build plants in the US to build gear for the US market.  That Glock I love?  Built in Smyrna, GA.  The ACV?  Iveco teamed with BAE-USA (yeah...for BAE to get into the US market they had to establish a STANDALONE entity!) to design and build the thing.

The weird thing about the ACV?  Totally different from the vehicle IVECO first developed.  It could almost be said that its a cousin of the original but its definitely different.

So what does this have to do with anything?

It's simple.

The US will buy gear from anywhere if the need is there.  The problem for foreign firms?  We have a VERY ROBUST defense industry, and we support our defense forces.  We spend money and this is the piggy bank everyone wants a piece of. 

Either your shit is good enough or it ain't but it IS NOT the US taxpayers responsibility to fund corporations in other countries.

For my European and Asian friends that don't like it?  Well write your representatives to have them buy only home built gear.  Want to take it a step further?  Then have your boys only use gear designed and built in your home countries.  I personally don't care.

We (the US) are a gun culture.  We are a warrior people.  Until the social engineers get done trying to mess with us, we will always be a leader when it comes to warfare.  On a personal and global scale.