The U.S. partner of EADS, Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman, retracted its bid this week, saying the race was clearly favoring rival Boeing. EADS won't bid without Northrop Grumman, which means that Boeing is the only company left trying to win the $40 billion contract.

The European Commission called the decision by the European-led consortium to drop out "highly regrettable" and warned of U.S. protectionism.

"The European Commission would be extremely concerned if it were to emerge that the terms of tender were such as to inhibit open competition for the contract," it said in a statement.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said "open procurement markets guarantee better competition and better value for money for the taxpayer."

The contract would have secured thousands of jobs in the EADS partner countries Britain, France, Germany and Spain. Under the proposal, the fuselages for the planes would have been built in France and Germany, the wings in Britain and the tails in Spain. Northrop would have assembled and equipped the aircraft in the United States.

The decision to pull out of the bidding ends a fierce and years-long competition between EADS and Boeing.

Together with Northrop Grumman, EADS submitted its KC-45 tanker for a contract to outfit the U.S. Air Force with 179 refueling tankers. Based on the Airbus A330, the KC-45 won the contract in February 2008 but the decision was overturned four months later by the Government Accountability Office after Boeing challenged it.

The GAO said it found problems with the bidding and the contract is up for grabs.

Boeing is bidding with an altered version of its 767, a plane smaller than the KC-45 and one favored by the bidding conditions, EADS and even U.S. lawmakers claim.

"The Air Force had a chance to deliver the most capable tanker possible to our warfighters and blew it," U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., whose state would have been home to a Northrop Grumman facility to build the tankers, said in a statement. "This so-called competition was not structured to produce the best outcome for our men and women in uniform; it was structured to produce the best outcome for Boeing."

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn said he regretted that Northrop won't submit a bid for the tanker replacement program but denied unfairness.

"We strongly believe that the current competition is structured fairly and that both companies could compete effectively," he said in a statement.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News