US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday the Pentagon will drive a hard bargain with Boeing on a contract for a new aerial refuelling tanker after Airbus parent EADS dropped out of the competition.
"I wish that we had had a competition. I wish both companies had stayed in it," Gates said.
But he said that "we will certainly be sharpening our pencil when it comes to negotiating a contract with Boeing", the sole bidder for the troubled tanker aircraft project.
He said he saw no reason why the decision by EADS and partner Northrop Grumman to bow out would cause any further delays to "the long delayed" programme.
Gates made his remarks to members of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing -- which carries out surveillance and air refuelling missions for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- at a US military base in Southwest Asia, en route for talks in Abu Dhabi.
The Pentagon chief defended the terms of the competition, saying the request for proposals had been "fair and balanced."
US aerospace giant Boeing is poised to win the 35 billion dollar (26 billion euro) contract to build the new refuelling tanker plane for the US Air Force after Northrop and European partner EADS dropped their joint offer.
European officials and EADS, which owns French-based planemaker Airbus, charged that the Pentagon altered bidding rules for the contract in order to favour Boeing's all-American offer over the European bid.
The European Commission has protested and a German minister has accused the United States of protectionism, warning that Berlin will take up the issue at the political level and at the World Trade Organisation.
Copyright 2010  AFP American Edition
