March 3, 2008 -- The US Defense Department on Friday picked a Northrop Grumman/EADS team for a 35-billion-dollar tanker contract, dealing a surprise blow to US rival Boeing and giving Europe's Airbus a US foothold. Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), parent of Airbus, will provide up to 179 tankers for the US Air Force. The Boeing Company, the second leading US defense contractor after Lockheed Martin, had been considered the heavy favorite. The contract for the newly named tanker, the KC-45, is one of the largest Pentagon contracts in recent years and the first order on a tanker market valued at more than 100 billion dollars in more than 30 years.
It marked an unprecedented triumph for EADS, which has achieved a foothold in the world's largest defense market after a history of minor contracts, and senior executives said the deal was the second-largest contract for UK aerospace after BAE Systems' 1989 agreement to supply combat aircraft to Saudi Arabia. Airbus will make the wings for the tankers, modified versions of the A330 commercial airliner, at its UK plants in Broughton and Filton. The company said the contract would bring in $6 billion worth of work and help secure 9,000 British jobs.
Source: AMT
