Everyone thought Boeing was a shoe-in for the $40-billion, 180-plane first phase of a huge program to buy new KC-45 tankers to replace the Air Force’s 45-year-old Boeing KC-135s. But Northrop and France-based EADS just won with their Airbus-derived model. Boeing’s 767 tanker was smaller and nimbler, an advantage for hectic air campaigns, according to the company. But get this:

General Arthur J. Lichte, commander of the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command, said the winning design had many advantages over Boeing’s tanker. “More passengers, more cargo, more fuel to offload, more patient that we can carry, more availability, more flexibility and more dependability,” he said.

A bigger tanker is especially useful over the vast Pacific — note that Australia recently bought A-330 tankers (pictured). And fewer but bigger tankers means the Air Force can reduce tanker force structure, settling on a smaller fleet than today’s 500 KC-135s.