Boeing has decided to appeal its loss of the Air Force refueling tanker contract to Northrup Grummon and Airbus. 

Keeping national defense production capability, especially with sensitive technologies, is key. As is keeping jobs from leaking elsewhere when the U.S. taxpayer pays the bill for R&D and training and infrastructure. The trouble is that Boeing fails these tests.

The company aggressively outsources. 

"We look all around the world for the best technology, the best intellectual capability, and for the best manufacturing capability in a serious effort to improve our competitiveness," says Jim Morris, Boeing's vice-president for engineering & manufacturing and the architect of the company's outsourcing strategy.

It partners with the Chinese government and sells them sensitive technology that you or I could never get away with selling to geopolitical rivals.

And predictably, a Boeing aerospace engineer, Dongfan "Greg" Chung, was charged last month with spying for the Chinese government. 

By all means, let's build the capacity to produce our defense here at home.  Boeing could certainly get on this train, but it has a lot of work to do to repair its patriotic credibility.

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