If those faggy Frogs actually thought they going to get this contract, they were fucking shitting themselves. Like the DOD was going to give all that money and all those jobs to an illegally-subsidized European firm. Please.
EADS' chances for winning this contract went down faster than Sean O'Keefe on a flight in the Alaskan wilderness.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews
Boeing wins major contract to supply new aerial refueling tankers
The Pentagon announced Thursday that it has selected Boeing to supply a new generation of aerial refueling tankers in a deal worth more than $30 billion.
"Boeing was a clear winner," Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said after Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley announced that the U.S. plane manufacturer had won the years-long competition over its European archrival.
Donley said Boeing beat out European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS), to provide 179 tankers in the first phase of the program to replace the aerial refueling fleet. He indicated that both companies met all 372 mandatory requirements of the contract but that Boeing submitted the lower bid.
The tanker is to be designated the KC-46A, and the first 18 planes are to be delivered by 2017, Donley said.
"This was a spirited competition, with both offerers acquitting themselves well," he told a Pentagon news conference. Now, he said, "we hope all parties . . . will respect the decision and allow this important procurement to proceed unimpeded." The award "represents a long-overdue start to a much-needed program," he said.
The competition for the contract was marked by bitter recriminations and extensive advertising campaigns by both sides that smacked of negative ads in a political campaign.
The initial contract is for engineering and manufacturing development and is valued at $3.5 billion, Donley said. The overall contract for the first phase is worth "over $30 billion," he said.
