My post on Lockheed Martin's Chairman and CEO criticizing protectionism and pointing to the Northrop Grumman/EADS tanker award "as reinforcing the openness of U.S. markets," elicited quite a bit of heated email, none of it from Lockheed fans.

From Jim P.:

"Stevens points to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as being a 'flagship program for international cooperation.' The time will come when the Joint Strike Fighter contract will be so far over budget with a plane that doesn't perform, Mr. Stevens will have to eat his words. The design of the JSF by Lockheed is so deficient compared to the Boeing JSF it's funny. The tanker deal is absolutely political and is sad for the American tax payers."

From Bill B.:

"I enjoyed your article about Lockheed's Chairman basically telling Boeing to 'get over it' regarding the KC-45 award to Northrop/EADS. The recent trend of losing contractors automatically protesting every award and thereby delaying the introduction of much needed systems needs to end. Perhaps the Congress should change the law to make protests more difficult. Sadly, Lockheed has done its fair share of the same behavior recently."

From Kenneth P, a Northrop Grumman employee:

"They must have some pretty strong beer or whatever over in Brussels for Bob Stevens to say he supports the tanker decision. What is his take on Lockheed protesting the BAMS competition we won over his company?"

From Josh G:

"The funny thing is the (Boeing) KC-767 is a real operational tanker. The NG/EADs is yet to be built! So, our jets will be refueling from an imaginary airplane."

From M.:

"I noticed Lockheed's Chairman and CEO not only neglected to mention the VH-71, but also neglected it has protested the CSAR-X competition twice, a competition involving a variant of the us101/vh-71 platform."

From Nick:

"Worked there years ago. Know people who work there still...The waste and incompetence still prevails."

From the S's:

"The Europeans are leaning on Lockheed to speak up about the tanker deal, since they are funding part of the JSF and feel that they deserve U.S. government contracts in return."

From Mike A.:

"Didn't Lockheed lose the CSAR's contract and whine and protest it? Maybe Lockheed should get over it."

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