Airbus to decide on US tanker bid in 2-3 weeks

France 24 ^ | 3/29/2010 | France 24

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

European plane-maker Airbus will decide in two to three weeks whether to compete for a US military contract to build an aerial refuelling tanker, its chief said in an interview published Monday.

Airbus's parent company, EADS, and its US partner Northrop Grumman dropped a joint bid for the contract earlier in March as the companies alleged that the Pentagon's requirements were skewed in favour of US aerospace giant Boeing.

"The Pentagon has asked us to decide if we would like to participate, but this time as the main contractor," Airbus chief executive Thomas Enders told the Financial Times Deutschland. "It is a fundamental difference."

Last week EADS asked the Pentagon to extend the May 10 deadline for bids by 90 days, and the US Defence Department indicated that it would welcome a new offer from the European aircraft maker.

"The decision to participate or not will be made in the next two to three weeks," Enders said.

"It will be particularly difficult to make a competitive offer. We always need a reliable American partner and a competent team to make an offer," he said.

The Northrop-EADS withdrawal from the race triggered an uproar in Europe, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel accusing Washington of bias in favour of the all-American Boeing plane