These kinds of things are not always as clear cut as they seem.  Here is what I know.  I am in the Aero Space industry and some of these opportunities are losers from the get go, but to stay in business you bid on them anyways to keep the customers happy.  However, you purposely do things that will put your self out of the bidding if possible etc. and as the whole thing spirals, prices go up, it gets confusing and control of the entire project becomes chaos.  Imagine the poor son of a gun trying to project manage something everyone wants out of.

 

I happen to know that parts of this tanker project is one such animal.  So I guess what I am trying to say, it is so hard to have any idea of what is going on because so many goofy antics are happening in the background.  I know a company I worked with absolutely did not want to win their contract on this plane and they had put hundreds of thousands of dollars in design and proto types.