RALEIGH -- Two giant military contractors are promising jobs for North Carolina as part of their all-out battle for one of the biggest military contracts in history, a contest to build 179 tanker jets for the U.S. Air Force.
Chicago-based Boeing would bring 100 jobs to this state if it wins the contract, but the small number of jobs has not stopped the aeronautics company from trucking in displays of tractor-trailers to Wilson and Greensboro showcasing its Boeing 767 tanker. Gearboxes and other assemblies for the 767, the military version of Boeing's widely used commercial aircraft, would be built by subcontractors in Greensboro, Wilson, Shelby and Monroe.
The fight over the coveted military contract, estimated at $35 billion to $40 billion, is now approaching a decade. The contest has left in its wake an ethics scandal, prison terms and, most recently, a federal investigation that in 2008 overturned the Air Force's previous contract award to Northrop Grumman.
"It is a price shootout," said John Sams, a retired Air Force general and former Boeing vice president who is aiding the company's publicity blitz for the contract.
The Air Force is expected to award the new contract by December. The bidders are Boeing and EADS North America, which is bidding a military version of the European commercial jet, the Airbus.
Boeing's plane would be built in Washington state and modified in Kansas. The EADS Airbus would be built in Alabama, with supporting work drawn from other states. The European consortium has estimated it would bring several hundred jobs to North Carolina.
The drawn-out fight over the tanker contract stems from the Air Force plan to replace its 400-plus Eisenhower-era Boeing-built KC-135 tankers. The KC-135 is the U.S. military's all-around flying workhorse used for re fueling, moving cargo and medical evacuations.
The first phase will replace 179 planes over about 15 years. Replacing the entire fleet will cost an estimated $100 billion.
Both bidders' contractors have several hundred employees in this state and have lobbied North Carolina elected officials to gain advantage in the fight.
Boeing won the first bid in 2004, but it was nullified by an ethics scandal that netted prison terms for a former Boeing executive and an Air Force official.
In the next round, Northrop Grumman led a European consortium and scored an upset over the heavily favored Boeing.
Boeing protested the award, which led to findings by the Government Accountability Office that the Air Force botched the bid review.
The actual cost per plane is top secret, perhaps the most closely guarded of the proprietary data in the complex bidding war.
Total job creation would be in the tens of thousands in this country, both bidders have estimated.
"This would be huge," Sams said. "This is a quantum leap for any European manufacturer to be able to break into the U.S. market."
