NG: No regret about leaving tanker fight

Seven months after leaving the competition to build tankers for the Air Force, Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush says he has no regrets. Bush made the comment during an Oct. 19 forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The company backed out of a partnership with EADS North America because it felt the contest favored the smaller Boeing offering. Rebecca Grant, an industry consultant, said the tanker program is being miscast as a choice between buying a U.S.-made Boeing 767 versus a foreign-made Airbus 330. She said that ignores a fact of life in the aerospace industry: There are no purely American-made airliners. Grant said at an Oct. 19 news conference at the National Press Club that either company will create about the same number of jobs in the United States. She also said it's possible the number of tankers built will be well below original projection. (Source: National Defense Magazine, 10/19/10) Gulf Coast note: EADS wants to assemble the tankers in Mobile, Ala.