Northrop wins bomber contract

www.defensenews.com...

Who needs a live announcement when its all over the news???

WASHINGTON – Northrop Grumman has won the contract to build the US Air Force’s next-generation Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), an industry-shaping deal that breathes new life into the world's sixth-largest defense company.

After US financial markets closed Tuesday evening, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Air Force leadership announced that Northrop beat out the team of Boeing and Lockheed Martin for the contract, which is expected to top $55 billion over the life of the program. It's the largest military aircraft deal since Lockheed Martin won the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) more than a decade ago.

Northrop now has the Pentagon's blessing to build a new fleet of aircraft to replace the Air Force’s aging B-52s and B-1s. As builder of the B-2 stealth bomber, Northrop beat out a joint Lockheed Martin-Boeing team in a closely watched competition that has lasted months longer than anticipated.

a reply to: boomer135

Hah!! of course!!! As always, great find, sir!!

a reply to: boomer135

Many will say this is to prevent further industrial consolidation but Northrop actually has the better bird. Details will come shortly.

wow....511 million dollars per aircraft in 2010 dollars. didnt see that one coming.

a reply to: boomer135

Off the shelf is a good philosophy!

Any chance you could give us some details on why it's better?
I recall vague mentions of optical stealth implementation and a less-than-stellar demonstration flight.
Given, I have nothing against the bird for nearly crashing if it means it's pushing some technological boundaries and they were still working out the kinks..

Wow, NG's got some killer lobbyists and despite what the generals say, industrial bases played a roll in the decision

a reply to: Ferros

No more kinks, they got everything worked out with plenty of time to go in the competition. LockMart had the more "aggressive" design that once you see it, you'll see it just screams cost overruns. NG's bomber, yes, is a more conservative design and cost effective but it's what it's packing on the inside that makes it a winner.

At the moment NG leads in the cyber domain and the USAF was very impressed by what they saw. They're getting a wholesale discount on some capabilities thrown into the LRS-B "family" of systems.

a reply to: aholic

That was always the sense that I had, and comments from those in the know here always seemed to jibe with that. For all the discussion of Northrop's struggles during the "risk reduction" (*cough* prototype *cough*) phase, nobody ever implied anything other than their prototype being the more technologically ambitious of the two, and that that ambitiousness had been the cause of it's troubles during the "risk reduction" phase.

I've got a pretty solid sense in my head about just what the NG bird will be in terms of planform, stealth, and control technologies. There are plenty of pieces floating around the web that you can connect into a pretty decent picture of that craft.

What I'm hoping we'll get to see is more of the Lockheed bird, which by all accounts seems to have been pretty damned ambitious in its own way.

a reply to: Sammamishman

You think they didn't win fair and square?

a reply to: aholic

Am I right to infer that Lockmart had a more ambitious flight envelope, while Northrop was more ambitious in terms of observability?

a reply to: Barnalby

I doubt we'll see the Lockheed design for years. It'll probably be through the spotters that we see the NG design.

The exception to that would be if the BoLock design is recycled for something else.

a reply to: anzha

UCLASS maybe? At least the planform?

a reply to: Barnalby

UCLASS is hosed and while some bits of the planform might survive, it'll be a very different bird.

a reply to: Barnalby

That would be correct.

a reply to: aholic

So are we talking years before we see the LM/B entry?

a reply to: Barnalby

Yes the NG renders floating around the net are fairly accurate to be honest. If NG were allowed they would have shown her in the buff during the superbowl, had they had the chance. They are very proud of this airplane and its right in the legacy of the B-2.

they prob pulled a Boeing and lowballed the crap out of the offer...

a reply to: Crumbles

All is Fair in Love and War.

a reply to: boomer135

Or the BoLock bird was really ambitious and it scared the Air Force when thinking budget.