The joy experienced by Louis Gallois, chief executive of EADS, at the group’s unexpected victory this year over Boeing to supply a fleet of in-flight refuelling-tanker aircraft to the US Air Force has been short-lived.
The decision by the US defence department last week to reopen the $35bn air-tanker contract is a big blow to the US defence ambitions of Europe’s leading aerospace and defence group. Against all odds, it won the contract with its US partner Northrop Grumman as the prime contractor in February.
