EADS to Add Facility in Alabama, Sources Say

European defense contractor EADS has picked a site in Mobile, Ala., to build an engineering facility that could be expanded into a manufacturing facility, sources familiar with the decision said Tuesday.

EADS will build the facility, which will initially employ about 150 people, at the Mobile Downtown Airport, said the sources, who asked not to be identified.

The company, which plans to unveil the site at a news conference today, declined to comment. “We cannot confirm or deny,” spokesman Lawrence Stein said.

EADS has said it would expand the facility and invest as much as $600 million, employing more than 1,000 highly paid aircraft engineers, if it wins a large enough share of a pending competition for new U.S. Air Force refueling tankers.

The Alabama site, which boasts a deepwater seaport, was among potential sites in Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina. The losing states have already been notified, one source said.

Matt Rhodes, spokesman for Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), who represents Mobile, said the state delegation had not been formally notified of the decision.

EADS already has a service center in Mobile for its CASA CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft, which employs 30 people.

Chicago-based Boeing Co., EADS’ rival for the tanker deal, has an aerospace site in Decatur, Ala.

EADS is in talks with Northrop Grumman Corp. to form a team to compete against Boeing in the tanker market with an aircraft based on the Airbus 330.

The two companies, which work together on other big weapons projects, could make an announcement within two weeks, a source said.