Pentagon officials said Tuesday that Northrop Grumman will build up to 100 new long-range stealth bombers for the Air Force, at a cost of $79 billion.
Advertisement
The company posted a $516 million profit for the quarter and recorded $5.98 billion in revenue, figures respectively 9.09 percent higher and relatively flat compared to the same period previous year.
“The Air Force has made the right decision for our nation’s security”, said Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman’s chairman, chief executive officer and president.
Northrop Grumman Corp. posted Wednesday better-than-expect quarterly results after capturing a hotly sought after government contract to build long-range bombers for the Air Force. The initial $21 billion contract could end up bringing Northrop $80 billion over the next decade.
The long-awaited contract for the Long Range Strike Bomber, or LRS-B, is speculated to be one of the most lucrative in Air Force history. The first part, the Engineering and Manufacturing Development, or EMD, phase, is a cost-reimbursable type contract with cost and performance incentives. It will be capable of delivering both nuclear and conventional weapons, and operate for a time with the 21 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers that Northrop and later Northrop Grumman produced in the 1990s. But while Boeing’s future in combat aircraft looks problematic, Lockheed has fewer worries: The Defense department has said it plans to continue buying the company’s F-35 for the next 35 years. The Air Force said the cost for fiscal 2016 to 2026 would be $58.4 billion, a 76 percent increase.
That program cost an estimated $44.75 billion-about $2.13 billion per plane.
In the meantime, the team at Boeing and Lockheed Martin had expressed their disappointment and had even hinted on not ruling out a protest.
The first aircraft are due to enter service around 2025.
Advertisement
“We believe this is a reasonable and achievable estimate”.
