Beijing will tread carefully in punishing Boeing over sales of Patriot missiles to Taipei. Near term, it will tilt more purchases by state-controlled carriers away from the U.S. aircraft manufacturer to Airbus, but Airbus lacks the capacity to meet all of China's long-range civil aviation needs. And there's another consideration, as aerospace consultant Joel Johnson of the Teal Group Corp. explains: "A little over half their fleet is Boeing. If they retaliate against (Boeing) aircraft parts, they're only screwing their own airlines."

Boeing had been slated to manage the construction and installation of 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland that were part of the Bush administration’s original plans. “The losers are clear,” said Phil Finnegan, of the defense and aerospace research firm Teal Group. “Boeing was going to develop that site, and obviously that’s not going to happen.”

"The last bastion of the losing protectionist is to wave the bloody 'Buy America' shirt," said analyst Joel Johnson of the Teal Group. "It tells you they don't have another argument -- e.g., the (Northrop) product was newer, more capable and less risky."

He said the decision to have Northrop and EADS build the new tanker would be difficult to overturn if an appeal occurred. Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va., said the decision was not “what anyone expected” because Boeing had the home team and incumbent advantage. He said there is very little historical precedent that a protest would result in overturning an award.

If Teledesic is to one day offer competitive prices to customers of the high-speed computer network, it must keep costs down now. But Marco Caceres, a space-industry analyst with The Teal Group in McLean, Va., says industry sources have told him that Boeing is projecting the satellites could cost $35 million apiece. Teledesic wants to pay $20 million each. If Caceres’ numbers are accurate, for example, the total project cost – including launching the satellites – could jump from the $9 billion target to between $13 billion and $15 billion. Caceres said that by industry standards, Teledesic’s $9 billion goal is too ambitious. “Pricing is not an exact science, by any means,” he said. “But I cannot believe these guys are not expecting the price would eventually go up.”