Northrop Grumman had been competing against Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the deal, which will value the aircraft at about a half billion dollars each.
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The Pentagon said it would announce the victor of a huge contract to build new long-range bombers for the U.S. Air Force after the market close on Tuesday.
Lawmakers in Sacramento passed bills past year to authorize almost $500 million in tax breaks to the winning team if they build a significant portion of the bomber in Palmdale.
Northrop chief executive Wes Bush called the Air Force’s choice the “right decision for our nation’s security”, touting the company’s experience building the B-2.
“Our team has the resources in place to execute this important program, and we’re ready to get to work”, Bush added. It is expected to be the largest defense contract in a decade. The APUC from the independent estimate supporting today’s award is $511 million per aircraft, again in 2010 dollars. When operational, the new bombers will join the fleet of 20 B-2 stealth bombers, of which only 11 or 12 are available to deploy at any given time, the Air Force said last month.
That price tag doesn’t include $16 billion the Air Force is budgeting to research and develop new technologies for the aircraft.
“Just because they’re existing and mature doesn’t mean that they’re in the open”.
Under this contract, the company will be responsible to continue development, modernisation, retrofit, and sustainment activities for the aircraft. With $US24 billion in 2014 sales, it was the smallest of the suitors for the Long-Range Strike Bomber and had the most riding on the contest as the maker of the B-2, which entered service in 1989.
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“[Northrop was] massacred on the Hill”, one Northrop-sympathetic defense watcher said of that fight, which ran from 2008 to 2011.
