Alabama Senator Objects To Contention Alabama Is "Risky" Place To Build Military Aircraft

Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) has a bone to pick with Boeing.

In a letter to Boeing CEO James McNerney, the gentleman from Tuscaloosa says he's sharing his "disbelief and profound disappointment" at statements from Boeing representatives at a recent Air Force Association conference -- disparaging remarks about his home state.

Boeing is locked in a long-running, bitter competition with Northrop Grumman and EADS North America for a mammoth contract to build new refueling tankers for the USAF. The Northrop team proposes to build those aircraft in Mobile, AL, if it gets the contract.

Boeing representatives, who want that contract every bit as much as the Northrop team, say the USAF should be concerned about Alabama's lack of aircraft industries.

That makes Shelby hot under the collar. He tells AL.Com the Boeing remarks are "ignorant and unfounded."

After all, Sen. Shelby points out, Boeing itself employs 2,800 workers in the Huntsville area alone.

"What has changed in the last four years that has so drastically altered your perception?" Shelby writes in his letter to McNerney. "I would hope that you would disavow the offensive remarks about Mobile and that in the future you will ensure that your company avoids publicly demeaning Alabama's highly qualified workforce, including your own."

This is the sound of a Boeing spokesperson back-peddling: The remarks, he says, "were intended to describe the technical and schedule risk associated with setting up any new assembly operation versus using an existing and proven assembly line."

FMI: www.boeing.com