Wants To Ramp Up Sales Beyond Airliners

EADS is in search of a U.S. defense contractor that will help the European aerospace giant pitch a new armed helicopter to the U.S. military, and says it's already spent tens of millions of dollars to develop the aircraft for a competition that has not yet been announced.

The move is part of an overall strategy to boost the company's non-Airbus sales in the U.S., according to EADS North America CEO Sean O'Keefe. Reuters reports that after EADS' merger talks with BAE collapsed last week, O'Keefe said the company was "undeterred" in its plans to grow it's U.S. defense business and seek other businesses with which to merge or to acquire outright.

EADS is already developing an armed version of its UH-72A Lakota helicopter in anticipation of a U.S. Army competition for an Armed Aerial Scout helo. The company had demonstrated the helicopter to Army officials, and says it can deliver new aircraft in the same timeframe as would be required to update the Army's existing OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters. Winning that contract would generate between $2.5 and $4 billion over the next several years, O'Keefe said. The Army may decide by the end of the year if it is going to open up that competition.

But any such acquisition program has to be viewed against the backdrop of the upcoming election, and the possibility of sequestration cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal government at the beginning of 2013.

(EADS photo Eurocopter AAS 72X Demonstrator)

FMI: www.eads.com