One reason for this decision is probably to send a signal to Boeing that military contracts are not "automatically" theirs. It also supports Grumman and helps to keep diversity in the defense market - competition is the only way to keep the costs of future at least a little bit under control. Maybe the Pentagon has come to the conclusion that Boeing has become too dominant ...
This Tanker now also may become interesting for some european Air Forces. Together with the new A400M Transporter and the A380 as possible C-5 Galaxy replacement Airbus seems to finally get their feet into military aviation.
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