Last Friday the Pentagon awarded a $40 billion contract for aerial refueling tankers to the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) in association with Northrop Grumman. While Boeing was displaced the Pentagon assigned a critical military contract partly into the hands of a foreign European company. The contract, one of the largest of the U.S. Department of Defense, is initially valued at $40 billion but might raise to $100 billion. So far the contract reads as follows: EADS & Northrop should build a fleet of 179 airplanes, based on the regualr Airbus 330. Those modified aircrafts could refuel military aircrafts in-air, from cargo planes to fighter jets.

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