Boeing is indeed extorting the Air Force to not punish it for cheating in the EELV competion.

Looks like someone was prescient.

Wonder if there's a tanker version of the Airbus A340 for sale...too bad Lockmart isn't building the Tri-Star anymore. A plug-in refuel module for the C-17, p'raps? But, who am I kidding, some obscure veep will be forced to activate his golden parachute and it'll be business as usual by next week.

It surprises me how accurate my interpretation has been. As the scandal continues to unfold, Boeing's behavior seems more and more in line with this interpretation. Now they've gotten some Pentagon official to quail to the media about how the Pentagon can't do *anything* to punish Boeing, because, why, the military would come to a comlete halt if *all* of Boeing's products were banned (thus cleverly equating the impact of a potential targeted punishment in a single product line with the catastrophe of a total ban, which no one in their right mind would advocate or expect).

I think Rand will understand this metaphor...I used to see Boeing and LockMart as rivals on the model of UofM and Michigan State...a can-do-no-wrong bunch of prima-donnas who get everything they want and more, vs. the redheaded plebeian stepchild who can never do enough to prove his worth and ability. As a State alumnus, it's amusing to watch this model fall apart as the rot inside of Boeing is revealed -- kind a like the UofM sports scandals of the past year or so.

I agree with John (and have been saying as much since the day the EELV scandal broke): nothing beyond a slap on the wrist, at most, will be done to Boeing as punishment for this. I suspect hey may lose a few launches from the ill-gotten contract, but they will still get the lion's share of the upcoming contract -- and probably more than they would have otherwise, since they now have the leverage of complaints about how the lost launches devastated their DoD-dependent EELV program and how they can't possibly continue production unless they are handed %70-80 of the new launches.

(Just imagine the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments that would be going on if it had been LockMart stealing the documents -- you'd have a half-dozen Congressional committees investigating every hairsplitting aspect of this "unconscionable and scandalous misbehavior by a defense contractor", and the usual anti-defense suspects would be all over the press, tut-tutting about how the four-billion-dollar-toilet-seat-selling military-industrial complex is not to be trusted.)