"Jay Honeck" wrote:

The KC 135 fleet was rebuilt and re-engined in the 1980 as
the KC 135R with new fanjet engines. But they are all old
airplanes. But they were all made in the USA. I wonder if
Congress {John McCain] will consider the need to have all
the repair parts under US control, the way the French are,
they night just decide to shut the USA off from spares.

Agreed. If the Air Force even considers buying a foreign aircraft,
we've clearly got the wrong leadership at the top.

Although it can't hurt to make Boeing THINK we might buy Airbus, just
to keep the price honest... ;-)

As I recall, when the earlier proposals were made for tanker replacement,
Airbus and their US partners had more US content than Boeing did. It's
almost like the "Japanese" cars now mostly made in US assembly plants. It's
not as cut and dried as you make it seem.