Airbus parent looks toward more U.S. military businessBy Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter
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A KC-45 tanker is shown in this artist's rendering from Northrop Grumman, which, along with its partner, EADS, is determined to break into the U.S. defense market.
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/ NORTHROP GRUMMAN
A KC-45 tanker is shown in this artist's rendering from Northrop Grumman, which, along with its partner, EADS, is determined to break into the U.S. defense market.
LONDON — Despite the Pentagon decision last week to redo the big Air Force refueling-tanker competition won in February by Airbus parent EADS and its partner Northrop Grumman, top EADS executives remain determined to break into the U.S. defense market.
They talked about making a billion-dollar U.S. acquisition next year.
And they are eyeing more than tankers.
Saturday, EADS leaders shrugged off the tanker rebid and expressed confidence that the original award will be sustained.
And executives spoke optimistically of winning another big U.S. military airplane contract: They aim to eventually replace more than 450 U.S. Army midsize transport planes.
Boeing doesn't have a candidate plane for that role.
At a full-day press seminar in the Hampshire countryside not far from where the Farnborough Air Show starts Monday, the U.S. tanker was a hot topic.
John Young, chief operating officer of EADS North America Tankers, said the Department of Defense will not do a full-scale re-examination of the entire bid process.
Young said the original Northrop/EADS bid proposal "literally, not figuratively, filled a tractor trailer."
"They are not doing that again," he said. "This is going to be a very narrowly focused recompetition."
The Pentagon, he said, will work only on fixing the seven items in the procurement process identified as inadequate or faulty by the General Accountability Office.
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