The Air Force awarded a $40 billion contract for aerial refuelling tankers to a partnership between Northrop Grumman and the European EADS (MTAD division at EADS CASA , the Spanish Branch of EADS). Under the contract, Northrop and EADS would build a fleet of 179 planes, based on the existing Airbus 330, to provide in-air refuelling to military aircraft, from fighter jets to cargo planes. The contract, one of the largest at the Pentagon, is initially valued at $40 billion but has the potential to grow to $100 billion. It is also a sign of the growing influence of foreign suppliers within the Pentagon and breaks a relationship that has lasted decades with Boeing, which had built the bulk of the existing tanker fleet and had fought hard to land the new contract. Within this complex program, EADS-CASA has entrusted GTD for the development of critical subsystems, the “Engineering Simulator” (software for real time simulation of fuel system, hydraulic system and electric system of the aircraft), and the visual system (in charge to interface with both, the pilots and the MRTT mission controller), and the graphical MMI for navigation display, the Primary Flight Display, and the refuelling control & command console. In the other hand, GTD is also service provider to Thales Aerospace, who is the main developer of the avionics of A330 and A330 MRTT.
