What is EADS waiting for in tanker contest?
Published 10:49 am Monday, March 29, 2010
A German newspaper is reporting that EADS officials will take two to three weeks to decide whether they will bid against Boeing for the Air Force tanker contract.
EADS’ partner Northrop Grumman dropped out of the $35 billion contest three weeks ago. EADS said it would consider bidding on its own after Pentagon officials indicated they may be willing to extend the May 10 deadline. The Pentagon has yet to announce a deadline extension.
So the wait continues …
Lexington Institute analyst Loren B. Thompson wrote this list of things EADS officials really want in order to bid. Besides a deadline extension, EADS execs want a change in the tanker requirements. Northrop officials said the Air Force favored Boeing’s smaller 767-based tanker. As things stand now, in order to have a chance at winning, EADS execs “would practically need to give their plane away to be price-competitive with the Boeing 767,” Thompson writes.
Lastly, the analyst suggest that EADS may be looking for indication that Republicans will have stronger position in Congress come November. The Northrop-EADS platform always had stronger support from Republicans — namely those in the South, where the duo planned to assemble their tanker.
