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Airbus offers to split tanker deal with Boeing |
| Fri April 17th, 2009 |
By Emma Vandore
Associated Press
PARIS — Airbus Industrie’s military arm, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., said today that it will compete along with partner Northrop Grumman Corp. for a $35 billion U.S. Air Force contract even if it has to share it with archrival Boeing Co.
EADS spokesman Pierre Bayle said that his company wants to bid for the 179-plane contract when Defense Secretary Robert Gates reopens the competition and will respect whatever format he chooses.
“We want to be there whatever the solution,” Bayle said.
The tanker replacement program has been plagued by a series of tortuous delays, and with the current fleet of KC-135 jets entering old age, replacements are badly needed.
Some powerful lawmakers have proposed splitting the job between Chicago-based Boeing and the Northrop-EADS team to speed up production.
In September, Gates canceled the last competition — awarded to Northrop and EADS — saying he wanted to let a new administration decide the politically thorny issue.
The decision to give Northrop-EADS the contract was overturned after Boeing appealed and a congressional audit concluded the Air Force had unfairly penalized Boeing’s smaller plane.
The outcome of the competition also will affect East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney. The EADS plane is to be powered by General Electric engines, while Boeing’s tanker is powered by engines built by Pratt.
The EADS aircraft is based on an Airbus 330 commercial plane, while Boeing’s entry into the competition is based on its 767 commercial plane.
Critics of the larger EADS plane claimed that the U.S. military would not be able to accommodate the tanker at many smaller air bases. The Northrop Grumman tanker also would be produced mostly overseas, Boeing proponents claimed, although final assembly would occur at a plant in Alabama.
The Boeing-built, Pratt-powered tanker would be produced mostly in the U.S., Boeing and Pratt backers said, adding the Boeing version would support jobs in at least 30 states. That includes at least 4,000 Connecticut jobs at Pratt’s plants as well as dozens of jobs at smaller aerospace subcontractors around the state.
An earlier plan to lease planes from Boeing was halted in 2003, and a top Pentagon official went to prison for favoring the Chicago-based company.
Gates has said that the Pentagon plans to issue guidelines for a new plane and solicit bids this summer, although a timeline has not been set.
Gates has rejected a proposal to split the contract between the two teams, an idea pushed by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees defense spending. Murtha claimed that two assembly lines could speed production of the planes, but Gates said the same could be done with just one supplier. A Murtha spokesman said that a split contract is still an option despite Gates’ opposition.
Bayle confirmed comments by EADS CEO Louis Gallois in the New York Times that the Northrop-EADS team will consider dividing the contract with Boeing as long as EADS can build at least 12 planes annually.
Gallois said that number is needed to support building an assembly plant in Mobile, Ala.
Journal Inquirer staff writer Howard French contributed to this story.
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