GE chief backs split tanker buy

The head of General Electric is supporting a move to split the Air Force tanker contract between Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. Jeff Immelt, GE's chairman and chief executive officer, said the compromise proposed by Rep. John Murtha may be the best way to get the troubled program back on track. "I think Murtha has created a path to break the deadlock," Immelt told The Enquirer newspaper in Cincinnati in an interview published Wednesday. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 04/09/09) Gulf Coast note: The Northrop Grumman/EADS North America team wants to build the tankers in Mobile, Ala.