EADS tanker

The loss of the U.S. Air Force contract was a major setback for EADS, but the European company does have tanker customers. The U.K.'s Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force have ordered a number of A330 Multi Role Tanker Transports, which EADS says are equipped with the same advanced aerial refueling boom system and digital under-wing refueling pods as its KC-45.

The Air Force's decision had to be especially vexing for EADS, considering that it had actually won the contract in February 2008 only to see that decision voided when the U.S. Government Accountability Office ruled that Boeing had been treated unfairly. Then again, in 2003, Boeing had been the original recipient of the tanker contract, but that deal fell through "due to illegal acts that had involved some Boeing and Pentagon officials," the Defense Department said yesterday.