The Boeing Company will pay the United States $25 million for allegedly performing defective work on the KC-10 Extender fleet, an integral part of the Air Force’s aerial refueling fleet in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The lawsuit, originally a qui tam or whistleblower suit, alleged that Boeing defectively installed insulation blanket kits in KC-10 aircrafts and also overcharged the government for the installation. The blanket kits are a critical component of the KC-10 Extender.

The whistleblowers, Anthony Rico and Fernando de la Garza, are former Boeing employees and will receive $2,265,000 as their share of the settlement.

The settlement will be a combination of cash payment and repair work. The settlement negotiations were conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Antonio and the Department’s Civil Division. The allegations were investigated by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the defense Contract Audit Agency.