Airbus and military

Interesting twist.

Airbus has gotten a contract from Australian airforce for refueling tankers.

Whilst Boeing in the past used work for military to develop commercial
aircraft, this time around, Airbus is doing the opposite: It will be building
A330s to be used as tankers. (This was a blow to Boeing's 767 production line).


Also, Airbus has gotten a contract to build A321s for NATO which will be
outfitted with radar surveillance equipment. (The competition was to be based
on flying skidoos with the same radar equipment, the Airbus platform won
because they could have more crew members on board to do live analysis and not
rely on ground analysts/telecom so much.

Their A400 planes may not have been as succesful as they would have hoped, but
it looks like their commercial planes may become useful for military applications.

Found this in the Cincinnati Enquirer(sorry I could not find a link):


GE AIRCRAFT WINS $100M+ ORDER

GE Aircraft engines said Tuesday it won a more than $100 million order
to suppluy engines for five Airbus A330 tankers for the Royal
Austrailian Air Force. GEAE will provide its CF^-80E1 engines starting
in 2006 for the Airbus tankers entering service in 2007. This is the
first order for the CF6 to power the Airbus A330 military tanker, GE
said. JDR