EADS has found a U.S. partner for the tanker competition, they’re just not saying who it is, according to the Financial Times.
The European aerospace firm had been in talks with L-3 Communications, but once word leaked of the potential partnership, lawmakers on Capitol Hill twisted arms and the U.S. company backed out, EADS chief Louis Gallois told reporters in London.
“We perhaps made a mistake to announce L-3. Putting it on the radar screen was not very good. This time we prefer to be more quiet. You read what Norm Dicks said. It's public. He said, 'I hope that US suppliers will not go with EADS.' I think it's a kind of pressure," the article quotes Gallois as saying.
Boeing supporter and top defense appropriator Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wa.), told U.S. companies not to team with EADS against Boeing for the $35 billion tanker contract. If it wins the contract, Boeing plans to partially build the new tankers in Everett, Wa., located near Dicks’ congressional district.
