The Good News keeps coming for Mobile

Last spring it was announced that German steel manufacturer Thyssen Krupp was going to build a new plant in Mobile County. Well Friday we received even better news. Friday will go down as a great day in the history of Mobile, AL. It was announced that Northrop Grumman/EADS won a government contract to build US Air Force Tankers. The tankers will be manufactured at the Brookley Aerospace Complex here in Mobile. Northrop Grumman and EADS say the project will create 1,500 to 2,000 jobs and support 25,000 others and include 60% domestically produced parts. Mobile is setting itself up as a major aerospace manufacturing and support center.

The Air Force tanker award is considered the largest defense contract since the Joint Strike Fighter [JSF] program of a decade ago.

The Air Force contract calls for the supply of 179 new refueling tankers to be delivered at a rate of about 15 a year. With the lives of tankers stretching to half a century, maintenance and upgrades could make the value of the contract as much as $100 billion, says Paul Nesbit, a defense industry analyst with JSA Research.

Forbes recently had an article that Mobile would have the fastest growing economy of all US cities.