Northrop Grumman, the world’s sixth-largest defense firm, beat a joint effort by defense industry giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the chance to replace the service’s aging B-52 and B-1 bombers. Though the Air Force has agreed to procure about 100 of the next generation planes, the Northrop Grumman contract awarded Tuesday is for an initial set of 21 planes only.
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“The LRS-B will allow the Air Force operate in tomorrow’s high end threat environment, what we call anti-access aerial denial environment”, said Air Force secretary Deborah Lee James. A few have dubbed it “B-3”, since it follows the B-2, which entered service in the late 1980s.
The contract awarded to Northrop Grumman is in two parts: the Engineering and Manufacturing Development, or EMD, phase and production lot options for production of 21 aircraft.
“We won’t go into any details relative to specific components or subcontractors due to classification and enhanced security”, said Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch.
Bloomberg adds that Northrop Grumman, the smallest company among the three suitors, have beaten out the combination of Boeing and Lockheed.
The bomber, which is expected to be fielded in the 2020s, will have conventional and nuclear capabilities and is expected to be produced in manned and unmanned variants.
The Air Force says information about subcontractors, including the engine maker, involved in the bomber program must be kept secret for national security reasons.
The contract stipulates the procurement cost is to be no more than $550 million each in 2010 dollars.
Investors had increasingly viewed Northrop’s prospects as tied to the outcome of the award by the Air Force of the contract to build the new long-range bomber. 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. According to the Air Force, they want a durable and stealthy plane that is created to fly deep into the territory of the enemy in order to attack targets that are hidden or mobile.
“I stopped one new bomber program [in 2009] because I thought it was headed down the wrong path”, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a rare appearance in Washington last week. “We are interested in knowing how the competition was scored in terms of price and risk”.
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Bill Allen, chairman of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, said the contract highlights the quality of the Southern California aerospace workforce, as well as “our region’s ability to compete successfully to attract thousands of well-paying jobs for our residents for many years to come”.
