Inside these posts: Refueling tanker

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EADS concedes tanker; now Boeing must deliver

One of the longest and strangest contests in Pentagon history ended Friday when EADS said it would not contest the $30 billion contract Boeing Co. won last month to supply the Pentagon with aerial tankers.

Chicago-based Boeing won in a price shoot-out, underbidding the European defense contractor by $2 billion, EADS North America Chairman Ralph Crosby said Friday. Now comes the hard part: developing and building the aerial gas stations on a fixed-price contract with little leeway for cost overruns, analysts said. Get the full story »

EADS near decision to skip Boeing tanker protest

An Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport is shown while refueling two probe-equipped F/A-18 fighter aircraft in this handout photograph from November 2009. (Reuters/EADS North America/Handout)

Airbus parent EADS is nearing a decision not to protest the loss of a $30 billion U.S. refueling plane contract to Boeing, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The European company could announce as early as Friday a decision that will end a bitter decade-long procurement drama described on Wednesday by the top Air Force general as “ugly.”

“Most likely there will be no appeal,” said one source familiar with internal discussions at EADS, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Get the full story »

Boeing wins $30 billion tanker contract

The Boeing 767-based NewGen Tanker is pictured simultaneously refueling two F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft from the wing air refueling pods in this undated photo illustration, obtained on Feb. 24, 2011. (Reuters/Boeing/Handout)

The U.S. Air Force on Thursday awarded Boeing Co. a contract worth more than $30 billion to build airborne tankers, potentially ending a decade-long contracting saga that is one of the longest and strangest in Pentagon history.

The announcement was an upset win for Chicago-based Boeing, and quickly drew an allegation that Defense Department officials had been swayed by “Chicago politics” from Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a leading Congressional supporter of rival bidder EADS. Get the full story »

Boeing considered underdog for tanker contract

Boeing Co. is the underdog to land a $35 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers that the Pentagon is expected to award as early as Thursday, analysts said.

If conventional wisdom is right, EADS North America would win its first major U.S. Defense Department deal and be the front-runner to replace the entire half-century-old tanker fleet in contracts expected to total more than $100 billion. Get the full story »

Boeing, EADS launch refueling tanker lobbying blitz

Even by Pentagon standards, it’s an eye-popping prize: a $35 billion contract to build nearly 200 giant airborne refueling tankers. And the decade-long brawl by two defense industry titans to win it has been just as epic.

In a matter of weeks — if not days — the Pentagon will announce whether Chicago-based Boeing Co. or European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company will build 179 new tankers to replace the Air Force’s Eisenhower-era KC-135 planes. Get the full story »

WTO expected to rule Boeing got illegal U.S. help

The World Trade Organization is likely to rule Wednesday that Boeing Co. received some illegal subsidies from the U.S. government, said people familiar with the case, fueling the debate with European rival Airbus and opening the door to negotiations on state support to plane makers.

The preliminary, confidential WTO finding will come more than one year after the WTO ruled in a similar case that Airbus had benefited from illegal European subsidies. Get the full story »

Date for Air Force tanker deal more in flux

The target date for the much-delayed award of a possible $50 billion U.S. Air Force refueling-plane deal just got murkier and potentially more politicized.

No longer is mid-November necessarily the moment of truth in the rematch pitting Chicago-based Boeing Co. against its European rival, Airbus parent EADS. Get the full story »