Subcontractors Include GE Aviation, Honeywell

When it comes to pitching a foreign-sourced aircraft against an American plane for a lucrative US Air Force contract, Northrop Grumman and European aerospace consortium EADS know what they have to do: emphasize the "American-ness" of their Airbus-derived offering.

On Wednesday, Northrop announced it has signed agreements with a number of US suppliers to round out its team tasked with winning the bid for a potential $100 billion aerial refueling contract. Those companies include GE Aviation, General Dynamics, and Honeywell.

"We're extremely pleased with the team of world-class partners we've assembled to build and integrate this highly capable and versatile weapon system for the Air Force," said Paul Meyer, Northrop Grumman's vice president of Air Mobility Systems and general manager of the KC-30 Tanker program, in a release to ANN. "In addition to being the most modern, capable tanker available, the KC-30 provides the Air Force with flexibility to meet current and future challenges."

The Associated Press reports Northrop says the selection of its KC-30 -- based off the A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) -- would create 25,000 new jobs in the US. That's a big number... but appreciably less than the 44,000 new jobs Boeing claims its KC-767 offering would garner if the American planemaker wins the bid.

Boeing's 767-sourced tanker variant is also some $30 million cheaper than the KC-30 at list prices... but Northrop says the price is offset by the increase capabilities of its offering, which offers more capacity to haul troops and/or cargo than the Boeing plane.

Boeing plans to assemble the KC-767 -- an offshoot of its 767 Freighter -- in Washington state and Kansas. While the KC-30 structure would be manufactured in Europe, Northrop stressed the plane would be completed on US soil, and contain 52 percent American parts.

"If it's built in Alabama, it's built in America," Northrop President and COO Wes Bush said Wednesday, according to the AP.

As Aero-News reported, Boeing and the EADS/Northrop partnership are the only two competitors for the USAF tanker contract, which offers $40 billion to replace 179 of the service's aging KC-135 tankers. But that's only the first phase; the Air Force ultimately wants more than 500 planes, and the value of the contract will increase proportionally. The Air Force is expected to rule on the first phase of the contract by the end of the year.

Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale noted 85 percent of the KC-767 would be manufactured in the US... and commented the team it has assembled on the project has been "together for years, not hours."

But, he added, "Our competitor has put together a solid team that we do not underestimate."

FMI: www.northropgrumman.com, www.eads.com, www.boeing.com, www.af.mil