Airbus parent EADS has won the battle to secure "preferred bidder" status for a contract to supply a $25bn (£13bn) fleet of air-to-air refuelling tankers to the UK's Royal Air Force. The deal is critical to EADS's push to break Boeing's global monopoly on military refuelling.

The announcement, bringing more than a year of intense and sometimes rancorous negotiations to a close, is expected early next week. Although it will fall short of an official contract signing, people briefed on the decision said the MoD would name the EADS-led partnership AirTanker as the programme's preferred bidder.