Boeing just recently lost the
battle for the LRB for approximately 60 Billion as it will hurt. Northrop won
the bid as it will not result in closing its doors. The military tries to
defend the industrial complex from extinction if the bids are a wash. Northrop
was saved from extinction. Boeing lost, because it insisted on winning a 179
tanker order against Airbus. Lockheed won the F-35 and is endowed with Pentagon Billions. Boeing
bid against Lockheed with its F-32 rendering. It lost from a STVOL
consideration as Boeing wasn't quite yet ready for prime time on its
presentation, but latter got it down solid.
The
Boeing bid process has become victim with its own energy of bidding on
everything big on the military, ignoring Government penchant for preserving the
complex, as a necessary balancing act for the nation's defense. It needs manufacturing from multiple sources in order to achieve optimal results from competition. Boeing needs to court the military, and pick its battles rather
than bid everything and insist on complaining when it loses. Boeing doesn't endear
the military plans as they give one to Northrop as part of preserving its
Military Industrial Complex health meter. Keeping Northrup around for the next
decades is Job one. Don't worry Boeing you were tossed a Tanker bone away from the Airbus complex.
That is
why Boeing needs to do a careful approach to the award process. The first
objective is to identify what upcoming program will make Boeing Defense
industry for three next decades. They should have approached its F-32 bid more
seriously with its vast committed intelligence, engineering and capital R&D. Lockheed
no longer builds commercial airplanes so it was a do or die effort for them. The
military appreciated its attitude for do or die and gave Lockheed the F-35 bid.
Boeing was doing well with its commercial realm and its offering was very close
in the competition. However, Boeing could have done better during the award
process and would have won it if wasn't so arrogant of an industrial base. They lacked
humility and lost.
The F-32 should have been the Marine Bird period. The F-35 needed
some beefing up but it gave it away when it had to accommodate three F-35 types
from one design concept. Lockheed could have built a Navy deck launcher with an
advanced Air Force Fighter frame. However, somebody had an outcome based
education resume and insisted on everybody wins having one frame and Boeing you
lose because you got the gold star last time. In a perfect world the DoD biffed
it. They should have grabbed the Boeing design in a heartbeat for a dedicated
STVOL fighter. However, the outcome based nerds with all the Gold stars awarded
Lockheed the award because it was its turn. Then comes the LRB project and it's
Northrop's turn.
If the Military was really interested having the best concept
flying it would cherry pick the best concept from any manufacturer and not
insist on playing like a bunch of first graders giving out bid award stars. The
system really makes America weaker and it doesn't actually save $$Tax Dollars. The
cost over runs are proof of that during JSF program. The old axiom is true:
"good at all things, master of nothing". The Marines are a special
group of people and they need an ugly jump jet on Steroids. The F-32 was that
Jump Jet.
Wow, I digressed again, back to Boeing bidding strategy:
- Boeing needs to
pick only one bid program for a long term continued production run.
- Boeing does not
need to go after every program, but it need to bid every program.
- Boeing needs to
prepare for "a feature bid program with R & D behind it"
with a do or die mindset
- Boeing needs to
woo the Military by not complaining or objecting during bid losses
- Boeing needs to
complete a bid development beyond expectations and eliminate mishaps
(KC-46)
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