The KC-45, based on the commercially successful A330, will be assembled in a new manufacturing facility to be built in Mobile, Alabama, which will also produce Airbus commercial freighter aircraft - more than doubling the aircraft production that the tanker alone would bring.
The KC-45 will also create and support jobs across a supplier base of more than 200 American companies.
Along with prime contractor EADS North America, the KC-45 industry supplier team includes many trusted providers of equipment and services for America's warfighters, including:
• EATON (actuators, valves and other systems)
• GE Aviation (engines and systems)
• Goodrich Corporation (varied aircraft systems)
• Hamilton Sundstrand (generators, turbines and related systems)
• Honeywell (communications and navigation systems and other aircraft components)
• Moog Inc. (flight control systems)
• Parker Aerospace (aerial refuelling receptacles, hydraulic system equipment, fluid conveyance products and fuel components)
• Rockwell Collins (electronics)
• Triumph Aerostructures - Vought Aircraft Division (wing structures)
The troubled US tanker program has seen numerous appeals from both Boeing and EADS over the last decade as the US government struggles to make a decision.