The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter.

For nearly a decade, the Defense Department has sought to award the KC-X tanker contract to replace 179 tankers in an aging fleet of Boeing KC-135s that date back to the 1950s.

In a politically charged battle, the US aerospace giant Boeing and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, parent of France-based Airbus, delivered their revised final bids by last Friday's deadline.

EADS is looking like the favorite to land the contract, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute think-tank based just outside the US capital.

"Judging from the frequency with which Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter has been talking up the notion of a 'globalized' defense market recently, European aerospace giant EADS is the winner," Thompson said in an online blog.

Thompson said the Air Force would announce the winner Thursday after financial markets close.

The first time the contract was awarded, it went to Boeing, but it was subsequently canceled amid a Pentagon procurement scandal.

EADS won the contract in 2008 along with US partner Northrop Grumman, but the decision was withdrawn after the Government Accountability Office upheld Boeing's objections that the process was flawed.

EADS is now competing without a main partner, but with support from a number of US equipment makers.

The rivals are offering militarized versions of their commercial aircraft and promising the contract would add tens of thousands of jobs to the US economy struggling with high unemployment.

The EADS KC-45 is based on the long-haul Airbus 330, in service since 1993. EADS says it has 31 percent more capacity and a longer range than Boeing's offer, the KC-767.

It would be assembled in Mobile, Alabama, where EADS expects to produce at least 12 aircraft a year. EADS says it would create 48,000 jobs.

Boeing is proposing the NewGen Tanker, built around its long-haul 767 plane which entered service in 1982. The aircraft is smaller than the Airbus plane and would be assembled in Everett, Washington state, and equipped in Wichita, Kansas. Boeing says a win would provide 50,000 jobs.

This third attempt is marked by fierce lobbying from lawmakers seeking jobs in their states -- for Boeing, in Washington state and Kansas; for Airbus, in Alabama.

It also comes amid a long-running trade dispute between the United States and the European Union at the World Trade Organization over public subsidies for Boeing and Airbus.

The Defense Department insists the winner will be decided on the merits of its bid.

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