- I KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: The Pentagon has awarded
a massive defense contract to a consortium that includes a Brazilian aerospace
company. The Brazilian company will supply new spy planes to the Army and
the Navy. This contract raises new questions about whether the Pentagon
should only buy American products.
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- Lisa Sylvester reports.
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- LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new
spy plane for the Army and the Navy will be a military version of this
Brazilian regional jet. The Brazilian company called Embraer will make
the fuselage for the new Aerial Common Sensor reconnaissance plane. The
planes wings will be made in Spain.
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- Other components coming from Chile. Machinists and aerospace
workers call it piecemeal outsourcing.
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- FRANK LARKIN, ASSOCIATION OF AEROSPACE WORKERS: This
is a government contract, and we're concerned anytime taxpayer dollars
are used to create good-paying jobs in countries like Brazil or Chile that
are desperately needed here in the U.S.
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- SYLVESTER: The military awarded the contract, estimated
to be worth up to $6 billion, to Lockheed Martin, who has partnered with
Embraer to build the plane.
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- The Lockheed-Embraer team beat out Northrup Grumman who
would have used a Gulfstream plane made by American-based General Dynamics.
Defense contractors still rely on American firms to build the electronics
systems, but they have increasingly been tapping foreign companies to supply
more low-tech components like a plane's airframe.
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- JOHN PIKE, GLOBAL SECURITY.ORG: A good chunk of what
is driving this is price, that, when you look at what you can build here
in the United States versus what can be fabricated in other countries,
you're going to be able to offer, in some cases, a better price by having
some of it coming from other countries.
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- SYLVESTER: Lockheed Martin says less than 17 percent
of the plane will be built outside of the United States. In a statement,
the company said "ACS aircraft will be built in America by Americans
with American parts. The aircraft is fully 'Buy America' compliant."
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- But critics, including many labor groups, see this as
a sign of things to come. They worry that, as more defense work moves overseas,
the United States will not only shed jobs, but will also permanently lose
some of its industrial military base.
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- SYLVESTER: A spokesman for Embraer says the company is
not taking away U.S. jobs but adding them. The company plans to build an
assembly plant in Jacksonville, Florida, and will hire up to 200 new workers
-- Kitty.
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- © Copyright 2004, Cable News Network
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- http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2004/040803-spy-plane.htm
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