LE BOURGET, France -- Boeing said on Tuesday that it was prepared to go head to head with its European rival, EADS, to win a bitterly contested $35 billion contract from the Air Force by converting its 777 passenger plane -- a bigger aircraft than Airbus is offering -- into a refueling tanker.In what will be the third effort in a decade to replace the Air Force's aging tanker fleet, the Department of Defense is expected to release soon a preliminary request for proposals, according to executives from both companies.
No military contract has stirred as much rancor between Boeing and Airbus as the refueling tanker. The contract, which was first let in the late 1990s, was awarded in February to a consortium of Northrup Grumman and the Airbus parent, European Aeronautic Defense and Space, only to be withdrawn in September after investigators called the selection process flawed.