A converted passenger A330 or a tanker based on the pax airframe has a nose-down sit, but a KC based on a freighter has a modified nose gear.
And the secret "things" that Airbus "simply could not do"? As a matter of technology or of restrictions on the assembly line?
It not only sounds most improbable, but if there really were secret requirements that disqualified the Airbus design, whoever was running an alleged "competition" should be spanked, drawn and quartered and sued up the kazoo and down again, by both sides, for deceptive practices that wasted millions of dollars.