EADS wins €17bn RAF tanker deal

Britain has signed a long-awaited deal to renew its fleet of mid-air refuelling tankers in one of the world's largest government outsourcing deals.

Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said today it had signed a deal worth €17 billion sterling (£13 billion) over 27 years with a consortium of aerospace firms led by Airbus parent EADS to supply a fleet of 14 new Airbus A330 aircraft to the

RAF. The deal, which coincides with a state visit to Britain by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, will create up to 600 jobs in Britain and safeguard up to 3,000 others, the MoD said.

Earlier today, the head of EADS, Europe's biggest aerospace group, hailed the deal as another victory over rival Boeing, weeks after a dramatic win for EADS in a bid to supply the Pentagon with similar jets.

However EADS, reeling from a weak dollar that favours Boeing in the civil airliner market, saw the collapse of talks to outsource some of its production facilities to a German aerospace firm.