Since Euro-U.S. partners EADS and Northrop Grumman won a $40 billion contract to build Air Force refueling aircraft, they've announced plans for a new facility in Mobile, Ala. Chicago-based Boeing has lodged a formal protest, saying the contract will siphon jobs away the United States. Mobile officials disagree, reports Alabama Public Radio's Brett Tannehill.
MICHELE NORRIS, host: From NPR NEWS, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And I'm Robert Siegel.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: The public relations campaign over the Air Force's new tanker contract soared to a new level this week. Northrop Grumman and EADS won the $40-billion bid a month ago, but they are still beating back the deal's critics. Rival Boeing says the joint U.S.-European contract will lead to a loss of American jobs.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Well, in Mobile, Alabama, where the plane is to be built, that argument has irritated local officials.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Alabama Public Radio's Brett Tannehill reports.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: The city of Mobile was founded as an international port 300 years ago. Now, it's caught in the middle of an international controversy over the Air Force's new air tanker contract.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: Unidentified Man #1: The contract will bring thousands of new jobs and hundreds of new vendor opportunities to the Gulf Coast and Deep South, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Panama City, Florida, and north to Huntsville, Alabama.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: This radio ad is part of a publicity campaign that also includes highway billboards and full-page newspaper ads. The effort is to counter Boeing claims that if it loses the contract, America loses jobs to Europe.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: Mobile Mayor Sam Jones says that's just not true.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: Mayor SAMUEL L. JONES (Mobile, Alabama): When we first heard all of that, it sounds as if someone was saying that Mobile, Alabama is not a part of the United States. They were saying buy American - built by American. I can assure you that the people here are Americans, so we had to first get passed that.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: The growth of international business in Mobile is easy to find. More than 30 companies from nearly two dozen countries have or are establishing operations.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: At the Alabama State Docks, a $300-million container terminal expansion is now underway. Here in one of the dock's holding areas, cargo movers with their giant crab-like claws shuffle boxcar-sized containers back and forth.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: This port combined with the city's extensive rail and air facilities is a big reason Mobile landed the Air Force contract. State port authority director Jimmy Lyons says Alabama has a string of international successes. That includes the Mercedes Benz manufacturing plants near Tuscaloosa and Mobile's new ThyssenKrupp Steel plant.</s>Mr. JIMMY LYONS (Director, Alabama State Port Authority): I think anybody, nationally, that's not recognizing that Alabama is going to be a growing force, would be someone who's capable of ignoring an elephant in a room.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: Lyons expects the Northrop contracts to also spark additional aviation production in Mobile as EADS will also assemble plants for commercial interests.</s>Mr. JIMMY LYONS (Director, Alabama State Port Authority): Therefore, there's going to be a net increase in the jobs, probably more than what Boeing would ever generate. And those aircraft will be American-made aircrafts. It'll be somebody else's technology, but that's fine.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: The contract will create 1,500 new jobs in Mobile; supporting industries could bring another 5,000 jobs statewide. Some of those companies will literally move in next door to the tanker assembly plant at the Brookley Industrial Complex.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: Director Marc Pelham says he's already filled in calls from business centers who want to get involved.</s>Mr. MARC PELHAM (Marketing Director, Brookley Field Industrial Complex): I used to have to bring a map to show people where Mobile was — I'm serious — especially outside the United States. I don't have to do that anymore.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: As the lobbying intensifies on Capitol Hill over whether the Air Force contract was awarded fairly, officials in Mobile are busy preparing and hoping for the assembly plant's eventual arrival. If the project stays on track, the first Alabama-built tanker is expected to fly by 2011.</s>BRETT TANNEHILL: For NPR News, I'm Brett Tannehill.