US military copters come stuffed full of pork
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E-mail Global Times, June 7, 2011
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[By Liu Rui / Global Times] |
When politicians in Washington fight, China often becomes the victim. China makes an easy scapegoat for US domestic problems, as we saw in last year's mid-term elections.
But recently, both China and the US fell victim to politics inside the Beltway.
Politics is of course all about money, and in this case the money is the $500 billion US defense budget cuts in the next few years, which were proposed by the defense secretary Robert Gates.
Can you imagine someone asking for less money and being refused by his boss? That is essentially what is happening with HR 1540, the US Congress bill for National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. Having already failed once, the Democrats are now scrambling to haggle with the Republicans to reach some middle ground.
So here comes the traditional stuffing of the bill with pork. Thanks to the House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. McKeon, nearly 200 amendments have been proposed so far. One of them, amendment 98, clearly triumphs one company's commercial interests over the nation's, as well as damaging the Sino-US relations.
Amendment 98, sponsored by Rosa DeLauro, the representative from Connecticut, and passed in an oral vote last week, prohibits Chinese State-controlled companies from providing defense-related articles to the US government. It does provide an exemption though, which is nothing more than a power grab by Congress, saying the US secretary of defense must report to Congress 15 days before any planned waiver of the ban.
"With China making significant progress in the defense and aerospace industries it is critical that we ensure US national security is protected and that the highly skilled jobs and associated technologies in these industries are not outsourced overseas," said DeLauro after the vote.
The latter part of DeLauro's statement tells the real story. Her congressional district includes Stratford, Connecticut, where Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation is based. Sikorsky is the largest helicopter company in the US, maker of those familiar Black Hawk and Seahawk choppers that one often sees in Hollywood movies.
Less well-known is the fact that Sikorsky has also supplied helicopters for the President of the United States since 1957. The Marine One fleet, code name for the presidential helicopter fleet and managed by the Marine Corps, uses Sikorsky's VH-3 and VH-60 models.
Several months ago, a Wall Street Journal article reported that Aviation China Industry Inc (AVIC) has teamed up with a California company, US Aerospace Inc (USAE), to try to launch bids for US defense contracts, including one to supply AVIC's helicopters, model AC-313, to replace the aging Marine One fleet. The AC-313 can seat up to 27 passengers and is powered by three engines made by Pratt & Whitney.
No wonder Sikorsky feels threatened, and I can imagine frantic calls made to DeLauro's office immediately the news was out.
The idea that using a foreign airplane for the White House can endanger US national security is more than an insult to the Secret Service and the CIA. China's own equivalent of Air Force One uses a US-made airplane, a Boeing 747. At the time of its delivery, the plane was indeed discovered by China's security as coming with all kinds of eavesdropping devices attached. So Representative DeLauro must be thinking the Chinese would do the same.
Aside from this groundless pretense, using the AC-313 has many benefits for the US. First, the price tag of the Marine One program, which is notorious for runaway costs, can be substantially reduced. This 2012 defense bill is all about budget cuts, $500 billion in total, and it is time to start with the White House first.
And facing a viable competitor, Sikorsky will come up with better and cheaper choppers in the future, instead of always fleecing US taxpayers with the same old stuff.
Finally, some US government and military analysts also believe the idea of purchasing defense products from China has the potential to improve ties with China and increase transparency on both sides. This is a fair deal: Chinese President Hu Jintao rides a Boeing airplane and US President Barack Obama hops on an AVIC chopper.
