EADS submits its tanker bid

EADS North America officials on Thursday submitted their bid for a lucrative contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force and expressed confidence that their proposed Airbus A330 would beat out the offering from rival Boeing Co.

Ralph Crosby, EADS North America chairman, said the 8,819-page bid, delivered one day before the deadline, satisfies all 372 requirements laid out by the Air Force in its Request For Proposals to replace the Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers the service is now flying.

"This is an important day, an important chapter in what has been a very, very long-running saga," said Sean O'Keefe, chief executive officer of EADS North America.

O'Keefe boasted that the A330 tanker is "not a concept, not an artist's rendering. It's an aircraft that flies today."

In March, the Pentagon announced it would extend the deadline for bids by 60 days to July 9 to give EADS, the European consortium behind the Airbus aircraft firm, time to put together its tanker proposal. EADS had long been partnered with Northrop Grumman Corp. and had planned to manufacture the tankers at a facility it would build in Mobile, Ala., if successful.

But Northrop officials dropped out of the competition in March after deciding that the RFP unfairly favored the smaller 767 offered by Boeing over their A330.

In a show of confidence that its bid will be a winner, EADS is moving its tanker program management team to Mobile next week.

The Pentagon is expected to award the contract, worth as much as $40 billion, by Nov. 12.

Meanwhile, Washington lawmakers will join aerospace workers tomorrow at Boeing's plant in Everett, Wash., to support the aerospace giant's bid. Boeing plans to assemble its tanker in Everett, with military modifications to the 767 to be completed in Wichita, Kan.

Boeing supporters on Capitol Hill this week wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates urging him to consider a World Trade Organization panel report released last week that concluded that Airbus accepted illegal subsides from European governments to develop commercial aircraft.

"We look forward to hearing from you on how you will take this final ruling into consideration during the KC-X tanker competition," said the letter, signed by 11 senators. "Our workers are the best in the world, and forcing them to compete against European treasuries is unfair."

Signers included Washington state Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Kansas Republican Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, Oregon Democatic Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Kit Bond, R-Mo., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Roland Burris, D-Ill.

Boeing's headquarters are in Chicago, and its defense business is based in St. Louis.

The European Union has launched a countersuit to the WTO alleging that Boeing has received illegal aid. Interim findings are expected on that case next month.

Crosby, the EADS North America chairman, criticized efforts to make the WTO report an issue in the tanker contest. "Wasting a lot of time trying to derail a process because somebody is worried their airplane is inferior is a major distraction," he said.

The Air Force has been attempting to replace its aging fleet of tankers for years and has listed the new tanker as its top procurement priority.

In the rush to acquire new planes in 2003, the Air Force tried to lease Boeing KC-767s before reviewing other options. The $23.5 billion deal collapsed due to pressure from congressional critics, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who helped expose Air Force corruption relating to the lease deal. That resulted in jail terms for two senior Boeing officials and forced the Pentagon to consider alternatives to the Boeing aircraft and open future tanker contracts to competition.

The lease deal's collapse led to a competition to sell planes to the Air Force, which resulted in a contract award in 2008 to a team led by Northrop Grumman and EADS. But Boeing successfully protested the contract to the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon canceled it, setting the stage for the bidding that ends Friday.

At a Pentagon news conference on Thursday, Defense Secretary Gates said the selection process for the next tanker is as objective as possible. "I'm very optimistic that this time we'll be able to get on with it," he said.