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Tanker Bidder Sees Blue Skies

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 14, 2008

DOGMERSFIELD, England - The chief executive of EADS said he is confident his company and U.S. partner Northrop Grumman Corp. will win a disputed $35 billion Pentagon Air Force tanker contract when the bidding process reopens.

The Air Force in February selected the Northrop team to replace 179 Eisenhower-era aerial refueling planes, some of which are the KC-135 tankers now flown out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Boeing filed a protest in March, and last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will reopen the bid.

The deal - one of the largest in Pentagon history - could create up to 2,000 new jobs in Florida if it remains with EADS and Northrop Grumman. It is the first of three contracts worth up to $100 billion to replace nearly 600 refueling tankers over the next 30 years.

"We will get the tanker because we have the best airplane," Louis Gallois, chief executive of the European aerospace and defense giant EADS, told reporters Saturday in Dogmersfield.
Northrop Grumman has said the contract could mean $500 million a year for Florida companies, including four subcontractors in the Tampa Bay area: ABA Industries of Pinellas Park, Pall Aeropower Corp. of New Port Richey, Smiths Aerospace of Clearwater and L-3 Communications of Sarasota. Three other contractors are based in Florida.

The Air Force's original decision provoked fury among U.S. politicians, who objected to the military deal being awarded to an overseas contractor. Boeing had supplied refueling tankers to the Air Force for nearly 50 years.

After Boeing's complaint, the Government Accountability Office last month detailed "significant errors" the Air Force made in the original award to the Northrop team. The GAO said Chicago-based Boeing, which protested the deal, might have won had mistakes not been made in evaluating the bids.

Tribune reporter Ted Jackovics contributed to this report.

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