Northrop to bid on Air Force contract with EADS- Airbus A330

Northrop Grumman Corp. will enter bidding on a contract for the U.S. Air Force’s KC-135 tanker-replacement program, KC-X, according to a report in the Los Angeles Business Journal. The $40 billion contract would replace 179 refueling planes. It is the first of an expected three-phase deal that calls for more than 500 planes and is worth an estimated $100 billion. Northrop’s partner in the project is EADS, the European maker of the giant Airbus A330, which is to be modified into a tanker called the KC-30 for this project. Northrop’s competitor, Boeing, was involved in a scandal with the Air Force that delayed the bid for two years and there were concerns that Northrop might not bid on the project.