Posted on 10/27/2015 9:22:33 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
WASHINGTON – The Air Force said Tuesday it chose Northrop Grumman Corp., maker of the B-2 stealth bomber, to build its next-generation bomber, a highly classified, $80 billion project designed to replace the aging bomber fleet with an information-age aircraft that eventually may be capable of flying without a pilot aboard.
The loser of the high-stakes bidding contest was a team formed by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
$80 billion, is that for one?
From the article:
The Air Force said it will buy 100 of the new bombers at a newly calculated average cost of $564 million each. The Northrop Grumman contract awarded Tuesday is for an initial set of 21 planes, plus $23.5 billion in engineering and development costs. The estimated total cost to develop and purchase the full fleet would be $80 billion.
That averages out to about $800 million each when the engineering and development costs are distributed.
Wowzaa!
It’s needed, we have only 20 nuclear armed bombers now, the B2. The B1 is conventional only, and a certain number of B52s have cruise missiles. *IF* they can build the 100, then it’ll replace them as a nuclear delivery system.
The big problem is the need for tests for the old nuclear bombs. These will carry B61’s and B83’s, both good, but there should be a new testing period for some new warheads.
No but it will turn out that way.
If the f35 is a harbinger of how stuff doesnt get done right for tons and tons of money.
I doubt their numbers will exceed the b2’s numbers.
“If the f35 is a harbinger of how stuff doesnt get done right for tons and tons of money.”
Here’s yet another area where President Trump has the knowhow to save us a lot of money. Government “contractors” are the biggest thieves in the country, and its been going on since WWII ended!
Code Name - Obomber...
That would be a real shame. The #’s of B2’s was too low, and cut off from 100. The main costs are in the development, the per-vehicle costs are lower when more are produced. It’s politics and sad.
President Eisenhower was correct about not letting the Military Industrial Complex get out of hand.
We’ll end up buying about three of them before finally admitting that we can’t pay for them.
“That averages out to about $800 million each when the engineering and development costs are distributed.”
Triple that estimate. Go back and look at all of our cutting edge procurement programs of the past 30 years. All way over budget.
No, that’s just design and engineering. Planes are extra.
Boeing has lost every big government contract they’ve competed for since they defied the white house and the unions and moved Dreamliner work out of the union shops.
Coincidence?
Compiled from Wikipedia:
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress
Number built 12,731[2][3]
Unit cost US$238,329(1945)[
Consolidated B-24 Liberator
Number built 19,256
Unit cost $297,627 ($4.77 million in today’s dollars)[
Boeing B-29 Superfortress
Number built 3,970
Unit cost US$639,188
Convair B-36 Peacemaker
Number built 384
Unit cost US$4.1 million (B-36D)
Boeing B-47 Stratojet
Number built 2,032
Unit cost US$1.9 million (B-47E)[1] equivalent to $20.1 million in current value
Boeing B-50 Superfortress
Number built 370
Unit cost US $1,144,296 ($11.2 million in today’s dollars)
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
Number built 744[1]
Unit cost
B-52B: US$14.43 million[2]
B-52H: US$9.28 million (1962)
B-52H: US$53.4 million (1998)
Convair B-58 Hustler
Number built 116
Unit cost US$12.44 million
North American XB-70 Valkyrie
Number built 2
Program cost US$1.5 billion[1]
Unit cost
US$750 million (average cost)
Rockwell B-1 Lancer
Number built
B-1A: 4
B-1B: 100
Unit cost US$283.1 million in 1998 (B-1B)
Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit
Number built 21
Program cost US$44.75 billion (through 2004)
Unit cost $737 million (1997 approx. flyaway cost)
Next-Generation Bomber (NGB; formerly called the 2018 Bomber)
Outcome Terminated
Successor programs Long Range Strike Bomber
Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B)
The Air Force plans to purchase 80–100 LRS-B aircraft at a cost of $550 million each in 2010 prices[1] or $606 million each in 2016 fiscal costs. On 27 October 2015, the Pentagon announced that Northrop Grumman won the development contract.
On 27 October 2015, the Defense Department awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman. The initial value of the contract is $21.4 billion, but the deal could eventually be worth $80 billion.
Number Planned 100 at $80 billion total
2037 Bomber
Introduction 2037 (projected)
Status Planned
I could be mistaken but I think this is going to bring a few thousand jobs to S.CA. Not a bad thing.
My kid is on that program. The plane is actually pretty sound. As usual, the govt and liberals running things and changing things by the day is the TOTAL issue behind ALL it’s problems. The red tape and inter-company crap is beyond absurd.
I wonder if they will use UFO like gravitational fields to fly these bombers?
Must be some new “weird looking things” flying around Groom Lake.
Did they have a fly-off?
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