UPDATE 2-EADS sees U.S. tanker mixup as inadvertent

* EADS has "no objection, no complaint" about process

* Company not ruling out protest at this point

* Air Force competition valued at up to $50 billion

* EADS continues to examine mid-sized U.S. acquisitions (Adds quotes, analyst comment)

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - A document mix-up in the battle for up to $50 billion in refueling planes was clearly "inadvertent" and the U.S. Air Force appears to have responded as required, Sean O'Keefe, chief executive of the North American unit of EADS , said on Monday.

O'Keefe, in his first media roundtable since surviving an August plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens, said the company had "no objection, no complaint" about the Air Force's handling of the competition between EADS and Boeing Co .

But he said EADS had not yet determined if it would protest the release of information, and would not rule anything out.

O'Keefe, still wearing a neck brace after the crash, said the Air Force had handled every step of the tanker acquisition process in "the most aboveboard, fair and open" manner he had ever seen, and government officials were insisting that release of proprietary data was not a "compromising event."

"We'll see if that sustains itself," he told reporters.

The Air Force on Friday delayed a contract award in the competition until early next year, and said it had earlier this month inadvertently given Boeing and EADS a limited amount of identical information about each other's offer.

O'Keefe said there was a specific, detailed protocol about how to handle such incidents, noting that EADS officials had not viewed the document, but had "packed it up and sent it back" immediately after realizing it was intended for Boeing.

By all accounts, he said Boeing had done the same.

Boeing spokesman Bill Barksdale declined comment.

Defense analyst Jim McAleese said the clerical error could give either side grounds for protest, but the right to object would expire once they submitted "best and final offers." He said the Air Force could also make the award based on existing proposals, without giving either side the chance to revise its bid based on the data.

Asked what could trigger a decision to protest, O'Keefe said the August plane crash in Alaska had taught him it was impossible to predict the future. "There's an awful lot that colors my thinking now, and taking everything one day at a time is one of them," he said.

The contract award was to have been made by Dec. 20, after two failed efforts to replace Boeing KC-135 tankers, which are on average 50 years old. The Air Force has called the refueling plane its highest acquisition priority for nearly a decade.

The Air Force on Friday said the contract award was being postponed because certain aspects of the competition were taking longer than expected. The delay was unrelated to the "clerical error" that improperly disclosed the confidential information, it said.

O'Keefe said EADS was continuing to examine mid-sized U.S. acquisitions valued around $500 million -- and growth in existing markets -- to help meet its "audacious" goal of boosting revenue to $10 billion by 2020.

But he said the company was also looking at larger companies if they could provide access to U.S. markets in which EADS is not yet present.

"We're not restricting ourselves to that level exclusively any longer," said O'Keefe, still sporting a neck brace. He added that EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois supports "bigger dollar value" acquisitions in the right areas.

He said EADS was particularly interested in moving into areas such as services and logistics for the U.S. defense, homeland security and oil and gas markets -- areas in which it already does work overseas.

O'Keefe told Reuters after the event that an announcement of a possible acquisition was unlikely before the end of the year, but something could be announced "not long thereafter." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa. Editing by Tim Dobbyn and Robert MacMillan)