McClatchy/Tribune News | Boeing Co.’s European rival, European Aeronautic Defence & Space
Co., is finding it difficult to recruit a U.S. partner to bid on a $35
billion aerial tanker contract.

Reuters News Service reported Friday that L-3 Communications Holdings
Inc. has backed away from the Pentagon’s tanker deal.

The company was viewed as the most likely ally for EADS.

EADS is reportedly still talking with Raytheon Co. and other potential U.S. partners. But the reluctance of L-3 to join with it for a bid is an indication how difficult it might be for EADS to sign up a U.S. partner at the 11th hour for the politically touchy contract.

EADS and its former U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman, had battled with Boeing for the contract for 179 aerial tankers for nearly a decade in a contest marked by bribes, appeals and faulty bid specifications.

Boeing won the contest once only to have that win erased by revelation that the company had promised a top Pentagon procurement officer a job after her retirement.

EADS needs a U.S. partner for political reasons and because the plane might contain some sensitive defense-related technology.