Boeing demands tanker answers, lawmakers vow fight

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) demanded on Tuesday immediate answers on why it lost a $35 billion contract for refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and its European partner EADS (EAD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), as Boeing backers in Congress threatened to hold up funding for the deal.

A House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee has ordered senior U.S. Air Force officials to explain at a Wednesday hearing why they gave the contract -- and several thousand related jobs -- to Northrop and Airbus parent EADS.

In the Senate, Republican Sam Brownback of Kansas vowed to fight funding for the deal to replace the Air Force's aging KC-135 tankers, which were built by Boeing in the 1960s.

Brownback is a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls funding for the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

"I think it's the wrong thing to do. I'm going to fight against this in appropriations," Brownback said on the Senate floor, where his Kansas Republican colleague, Pat Roberts, as well as Washington state's two Democratic senators, also railed against the Northrop deal.

If Boeing had won, it planned to build its 767 tanker in Washington state and modify it for military use in Kansas.

Chicago-based Boeing called on the Air Force to explain why it lost the lucrative contract, that was announced on Friday, and why initial press reports indicated Boeing was the higher risk bidder.

Mark McGraw, vice president of Boeing's 767 tanker programs, said the Air Force's plan to wait until around March 12 to brief Boeing was "unusual" and "inconsistent with well-established procurement practices."