220 jobs coming to Utah

Northrop Grumman and the maker of Airbus planes beat out Boeing Co. to win a $35 billion government contract to build up to 179 military refueling planes, the Air Force said Friday.

In Utah, 220 jobs will be added with the contract, both in Northrop's Utah operations and with four supplier companies: Hexcel Corp. in West Valley City, Parker-Hannifin Corp. in Ogden, Barnes Aerospace in Ogden and Klune Precision Casting Co. in Spanish Fork, said Northrop Grumman spokesman Tim Paynter. Northrop currently has 1,228 Utah employees.

The selection of Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman and its European-based partner, European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., came as a surprise to industry and government officials. The Air Force said the larger size of the Northrop-EADS aircraft tipped the balance in its favor.

It is a big blow to Chicago-based Boeing, which has been supplying refueling tankers to the Air Force for nearly 50 years and had been widely expected to win the deal.

The contract — the first of three awards worth up to $100 billion over 30 years — positions EADS to break into the U.S. military market in a big way. And it opens up a huge new business opportunity for Northrop Grumman.

"They don't come along at this scale very often," Northrop Grumman chairman and chief executive officer Ronald Sugar said. "We do see this as being a very important component of our business for many years to come."

Paynter said that Hexcel and Parker in Utah will be suppliers to Airbus, made by EADS. The military refueling planes will have the Airbus A330 frame. Barnes and Klune will be suppliers to General Electric for the planes' engines.

But local political and business leaders were not cheering about the contract.

"This is a disappointment for Utah," Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon said. "We had a few companies that would have benefited because of the (Boeing) contract. We believed it would have been a great opportunity not only for Salt Lake County but for the state of Utah and the nation as well. There have been concerns in the past about Northrop's teaming with EADS."

Corroon was part of a group of local leaders who in December voiced support for Boeing getting the contract and opposition to Northrop/EADS. The group included Salt Lake Chamber President Lane Beattie; Rep. Niel Hansen, D-Ogden; Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Chairwoman Lorena Riffo-Jensen; and Weber Economic Development Corp.'s executive director Ron Kusina.