Stop us if you've heard this one before: Sometime in the next few weeks, the Pentagon will release its final bid specifications for a new generation of Air Force refueling tankers.

Wait. Didn't that happen in 2002? Didn't Boeing Co. win that contract? Yes, it did, only to have the contract thrown out after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., raised holy hell about corruption in the bid process.

And then didn't the Pentagon rebid the tanker contract and award it in 2008 to a partnership between EADS, the European parent company of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman Corp.? Yes, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates threw it out after finding that the bid process had been tilted heavily toward the Airbus plane.

So now comes Tanker War III. Even though final bid specs haven't been released, both Boeing and EADS-Northrop are complaining, as are their political supporters on both sides of the aisle in Congress. The stakes are high: a $40 billion contract that will create thousands of jobs somewhere — either in Washington state and South Carolina for Boeing, or in Toulouse, France, and Alabama for EADS-Northrop.

St. Louis has a hometown favorite: Boeing's tanker program is part of its defense unit headquartered here. Boeing needs to win this contract, both for prestige and the future of its commercial aviation line, which makes the platforms for the military tanker. Boeing also would like to keep Airbus from opening a U.S. assembly line that could be used to build commercial aircraft.

But the early betting line says Boeing's best hope is a tie: a split contract that would build some relatively small tankers on its 767 platform and some larger tankers built atop the Airbus 330 platform. Mr. Gates has said that for cost reasons, he doesn't want to split the contract, but politics eventually could force him to change his mind.

Boeing's supporters are complaining that the draft specifications for the new "KC-X" tanker released in September — despite being far more transparent than those issued in 2007 — still tilt toward the Airbus plane. The Airbus 330 tanker variant could carry more fuel longer distances than Boeing's 767 tanker. Boeing could design a larger, longer-range tanker atop its 777 commercial aircraft platform, but probably not in time to meet the 18-month deadline for delivering a preproduction model.

Boeing's supporters in Congress also want the Air Force to consider a September ruling by the World Trade Organization that Airbus unfairly benefitted from European government support. But last week, Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's top procurement official, ruled out adding a penalty to the Airbus bid.

Boeing's supporters also are raising the specter of the still-unexplained crash of Air France Flight 447 into the mid-Atlantic on June 1. That aircraft was an Airbus 330.

Whichever side loses Tanker War III surely will complain and appeal, possibly for years. The surest and fastest solution to replacing the Eisenhower-era KC-135 tanker fleet — and putting people to work — would be to split the contract. It might also be the best solution.