The upset choice of Airbus planes as the U.S. military’s newest aerial-refueling tankers represents nearly six years of planning and investment, but perhaps just as important was the relationship between a pair of executives at Europe’s biggest aerospace company and its U.S. partner who needed wins of their own, the Wall Street Journal rerpots.
Scott Seymour, then head of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s aircraft systems unit, and Ralph Crosby Jr., the top U.S. executive for Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co., parlayed their long association and knowledge of the Pentagon’s bureaucracy into a $40-billion victory.
On Friday, the U.S. Air Force announced the surprise decision that a team led by Los Angeles-based Northrop won a contract to build 179 modified twin-engine Airbus A330s to start replacing the nation’s geriatric fleet of more than 500 Boeing Co. tankers. Chicago-based Boeing had been heavily favored to win, prompting angry criticism from its supporters in Congress.
In the end, the Northrop-EADS team overcame Pentagon distrust — and its own occasional misgivings — to snare one of the U.S. military’s prize awards with a plane that is larger, more flexible and arguably less expensive to maintain than Boeing’s offering. The win opens the door for billions of dollars more in follow-on orders as the government eventually retires all its Eisenhower-era tankers.
“This was a pretty bold step,” Mr. Seymour said of the bid. “Initially, there was certainly a lot of healthy skepticism.” Mr. Seymour, 57 years old, coincidentally retired from Northrop on Friday, closing his career on perhaps its highest note.
Messrs. Crosby and Seymour not only were longtime friends and business associates, but they had collaborated successfully on an earlier joint program to sell Northrop-designed unmanned aircraft in Europe. The rapport also reflected similar personalities. According to people who worked with them, both had reputations as unconventional and sometimes impatient managers prone to chafe at the more-cautious style coming from their headquarters.
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