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Great headline:smile5: Industry Sees Few Changes With Dicks Calling The Shots: Defense industry officials and analysts say they expect a seamless transition when Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., takes the gavel of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and promptly gets to work on the FY11 Defense spending bill when the House reconvenes later this month. He has not been tapped officially for the chairmanship, but House Majority Leader Hoyer has said he expects Dicks, the second-ranking Democrat on the panel, to take over after the death this week of longtime chairman Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa. Dicks brings with him strong ties to aerospace giant Boeing Co., which builds many of its largest planes in Everett, Wash., near his district. But while he's known as an unabashed Boeing champion, defense sources said they don't expect his chairmanship to bring about a significant change in defense spending priorities. After all, Boeing, the country's No. 2 defense contractor, hardly went unnoticed during Murtha's tenure as chairman, which was marked with multibillion-dollar congressional add-ons benefitting Boeing's product line, such as the C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane and the F/A-18 Super Hornet. "I don't think a whole lot changes," said one defense lobbyist, observing that Dicks' priorities are largely aligned with what Murtha advocated. But the two lawmakers diverged last year when Murtha fought and lost a battle to split the contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force between rival bidders Boeing and a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. and EADS, the European consortium behind Airbus. Murtha hoped splitting the contract would curtail what he feared would be an endless cycle of challenges to contract awards. Dicks has favored giving the contract to Boeing alone. The Air Force is expected to release a final request for proposals this month, in anticipation of selecting a contractor this summer.