Northrop submits bid for refueling tanker

Northrop Grumman Corp. on Tuesday submitted its bid for a $40 billion Air Force contract to replace 179 aerial refueling planes.

The tanker program, which Chicago-based Boeing Co. is also expected to bid on, has been hold on for three years. Boeing had won and then lost the contract amid an ethics scandal that resulted in prison terms for a former senior Boeing executive and a former high-ranking Air Force official.

The Air Force says the tanker competition — critical to military operations in Iraq and elsewhere — is its top acquisition priority. A decision is expected by October.

At stake is a multiyear contract to replace a portion of the military’s older fleet of KC-135 aircraft, a Boeing-made, medium-size refueling plane. The $40 billion contract is the first installment of an expected three-phase deal that calls for more than 500 planes and could be worth an estimated $100 billion.

Northrop’s latest bid, which comes ahead of an April 12 deadline, includes partnering with European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., the parent company of Airbus, Boeing’s main rival. The Northrop-led team is offering its KC-30, a modified version of the Airbus A330 plane. The aircraft would be assembled in Mobile, Ala.

Northrop said company representatives from Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric Co., Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell International Inc., El Monte, Calif.-based Sargent Fletcher Inc., and other aerial refueling suppliers helped put together the bid.

Boeing is planning to offer a newly designed KC-767 which would be built in Everett, Wash.

•Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. kicked off the first-quarter earnings period on Tuesday by posting an almost 9 percent rise in profits on favorable metal prices and strong sales.

The Pittsburgh-based company earned $662 million, or 75 cents per share, during the first three months of the year compared with $608 million, or 69 cents per share, during the same period last year.

Revenue climbed 11 percent to $7.9 billion, from $7.1 billion a year earlier.

•Levi Strauss & Co. posted its biggest first-quarter profit in a decade, providing the latest sign that the long-suffering jeans maker is finally on the mend.

The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it earned $86.6 million during the three months ended Feb. 25.