The US awarded a big military airplane contract to European builders instead of to Boeing, the chief aircraft manufacturer in the US.
There have been protests that defense aircraft should always be made in the US; also that this will result in the loss of US jobs. If the government chose Airbus instead of Boeing partly to save money, it will also lose money due to fewer Americans paying income tax because they lost their jobs.
The article points out, though, that Boeing has a virtual monopoly of aircraft production since it bought out McDonnell Douglass, and therefore has no domestic competition. This makes Boeing lazy and complacent. According to this article, Boeing will create better airplanes now that it has a rival to compete with.
