EADS submits tanker bid to Air Force

[unhappycamper]

EADS submits tanker bid to Air Force
By John Reed - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 8, 2010 17:53:58 EDT

EADS North America has begun shifting its entire KC-X team to Mobile, Ala., a move designed to coincide with the company’s bid on the $35 billion tanker contest, EADS executives said Thursday.

“We’re treating this as if, come the announcement of the contract award date of Nov. 12, we’re gonna win,” said EADS North America CEO Sean O’Keefe during a briefing with reporters to discuss EADS’ 8,000-plus-page KC-X bid at the company’s North American headquarters in Arlington, Va.

The team will begin moving to Mobile on July 12 to lay the groundwork for what will eventually become the manufacturing facility for EADS’ 179 A330-based tankers, as well as all of its future A330-200 commercial freighters, if it wins the contest.

EADS officials plan to have roughly 200 workers in Mobile by the time the contract is awarded in mid-November, according to company spokesman Guy Hicks.

The European defense giant plans to start work on tankers in Alabama when the fourth test airplane in the program is delivered to Mobile, where the jet will receive military modifications. The company will gradually ramp up to producing airplanes and performing final modifications at the Mobile plant, according to former EADS North America CEO Ralph Crosby, who is now chairman of the company’s board. He could not give a hard date for when that airplane will be sent to Alabama.