Long Range Strike Bomber News: Multiple Sources Reporting Northrop Grumman has won the Contract

Long Range Strike Bomber News: Multiple Sources Reporting Northrop Grumman has won the Contract

Well looks like the rumor mill is churning. This site is saying that there's a rumor going about that NG has won the contract.

This is the first rumor I've seen online of a contract winner.

Multiple sources are reporting Northrop has won the contract. However, it's a rumor until if and when the fat contract award sings.

OTOH, Congress is more than a little peeved about the cost reporting screw ups by the Blue Beanies, ahem, US Air Force and wants answers.

If the USAF pisses off congress too much, the reputed Nothrop victory could be ryrrhic.

And other news outlets saying an award is immanent.

Decision soon on contract for new U.S. long-range bomber -Air Force secretary

"The long-range strike bomber contract is to be awarded soon," she said at a news conference. "The key thing is to make sure that we're doing it correctly."

I'm itching to get a view of the lrsb already.

And I think as we get closer more rumors of who is going to win this award will be flying.

a reply to: grey580

I wonder who is signing the contract, obviously a Contracting Officer with an unlimited warrant, and with this kind of major program I'm assuming the Air Forces head of procurement may be the one?

It'd be interesting to interview the person signing the dotted line for us taxpayers.

Hopefully the his rumor mill means we will see some kind of award and hangers opening soon. I'm hoping before my 30th birthday on 09/24.

a reply to: grey580

The award isn't supposed to be until September according to the Air Force. It's almost unheard of to announce weeks early.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Phewww, had me worried I had backed the wrong horse.

a reply to: Bfirez

Based on previous competitions it would take a miracle for them to win. I don't think I've heard of one yet where one company shifted resources the way they did, and went on to win.

I read a very interesting analysis somewhere based off of insider info that said something along the lines of "the contract will be most likely awarded based off of cost rather than technical merits". Am I the only one who interprets that as "yes, we know the N-G prototype had some teething problems, but N-G offered a much more competitive price, so sorry, Lockheed"?

If that is, in fact, the case, could Lockheed's recent press releases about pushing for an upgraded U-2 (that everyone knows they've been toying with since the 60's with their RCS-attenuating wire experiments) to go after the Global Hawk be an acknowledgement that the winds of this competition are suddenly blowing very strongly back in favor of Northrop? It's been said here that Northrop could always fall back on their global hawk business to keep them afloat if they lost the LRS-B competition, but they're also small enough that I'd imagine they'd have their hands full building 50-100 new airframes, the biggest bomber order since Eisenhower was president, and that the global hawk would likely be much less of a priority for them if they won the contract.

The next month will be interesting, for sure.

a reply to: Barnalby

It wouldn't surprise me. They did that with the tanker. This time though Lockheed will almost certainly fight it. If NG hasn't fixed their issue, again, it's going to bite them in the ass hard.

a reply to: Zaphod58

What about the USAF's open disdain for the F-35? The biggest complaints about it have come from the USAF, who put all their fighter eggs in the Lockheed basket and have now been dealing with the aftermath of three decades worth of escalating costs and delayed in-service dates on two separate airframes.

Now they're losing F-15's and F-16's left and right because those legacy platforms have been forced to be the backbone for the USAF's forces in the face of budget creep-related F-22 production cuts and the neverending F-35 delays essentially shorting them two crucial systems that they had planned their 21st-century operational plans around. Crucial systems that were either all but eliminated due to cost overruns (and still came into service a decade later than they should have), or have stretched their development timelines by at least that, and with no end in sight.

Given all that, I'm sure there's no love lost for Lockheed among some of their top brass, at least behind closed doors, and I'm sure that there are people who remember the relatively-painless ATB procurement with Northrop at the helm, especially in the face of TWO disastrous Lockheed procurements.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I hear ya. This is so far just a rumor.

However, stuff happens.

And this might be a leak.

But maybe not.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I'm not privy to any aspect of this procurement, but if there were / are "teething problems" then the usaf would need to make dang sure that their SMEs write strong enough technical evaluations to win a protest; I'm worrying that if this does go to NG and they did have rumored technical issues and this gets protested than all of us avgeeks will be stuck waiting even longer to see the goods with our own eyes...

a reply to: Barnalby

The biggest complaints I've heard have been from the Navy. They didn't want it to begin with and had it shoved down their throat, and then the thing couldn't even land on a carrier without a costly redesign, and the B model cost them even more by requiring development of a new deck coating that took millions out of the budget over several years.

a reply to: grey580

Yeah but Pentaweenies only know how to move things back not forward.

a reply to: SonOfThor

They spent 90 days on the ground in the middle of the competition, after damn near losing the aircraft.

a reply to: Zaphod58

To me that just screams "protest: sustained" if NG gets it.

I mean, theyd have to prove a legit fix or major trade off decision... It doesn't help that were getting near September (my procurement folks know what I'm talking about - my office is already averaging legit 5-10 hrs overtime)...

a reply to: SonOfThor

Based on the tanker and EELV fiascos I'm betting we have a long road ahead with this one.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: SonOfThor

Based on the tanker and EELV fiascos I'm betting we have a long road ahead with this one.

Dabnabbit - I wanna see some cool new planes

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Bfirez

Based on previous competitions it would take a miracle for them to win. I don't think I've heard of one yet where one company shifted resources the way they did, and went on to win.

Hi,
Can you elaborate ?
Why do you think Northrop can't win ?

a reply to: M5xaz

A few months ago Northrop moved several billion dollars, and all but a handful of engineers out of the bomber program to start work on other programs. In the past when a company has done that, they've always lost the competition they were in.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Could be someone putting out false info to help them with the stock market. I don't know.

But if NG did move engineers then they know already who is the winner.

originally posted by: grey580
a reply to: Zaphod58

Could be someone putting out false info to help them with the stock market. I don't know.

But if NG did move engineers then they know already who is the winner.

Would we be able to know pre award if say the NG folks sub contracted out the engineers in order to protect the integrity of the procurement or keep things under wraps? I'm not sure about the aviation industry, but in my experience in law enforcement and health care lots of the pros move around regardless of who has the prime contract.