Tue. March 08, 2011
The European Aeronautics and Defence group (EADS) announced it will not dispute the Pentagon’s choice of Boeing as winner of the competition to build a new fleet of air-to-air refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. The news concludes a nearly 10-year battle for the contract, which could support more than 40,000 U.S. jobs and is worth as much as $100 billion to Boeing and its suppliers.
In his announcement that EADS would not protest the award, EADS Chairman Ralph D. Crosby Jr., acknowledged that Boeing's $20.6 billion bid was significantly less than the $22.6 billion offer submitted by EADS, which had proposed building a tanker modeled around the Airbus A330. The Air Force evaluation, acknowledged Crosby, was “handled exactly by the rules.”
IAM leaders said the announcement confirmed their belief that the U.S. workforce was a major factor in the Pentagon’s decision.
