Northrop Grumman has won the $80 billion contract to build the Air Force’s next stealth bomber, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.
The award for the long-range strike bomber pitted the three defense industry giants against each other, with Northrop Grumman, which builds the B-2 stealth bomber, going up against the team of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which built the F-35 and KC-46 tanker, respectively.
The Air Force plans to buy 80 to 100 of the bombers, which will cost at least $550 million per plane in fiscal 2010 dollars. That price tag doesn’t include $16 billion the Air Force is budgeting to research and develop new technologies for the aircraft.
The Pentagon and companies competing for the contract have been secretive about any details of new technologies or what the aircraft might look like, likely to avoid a repeat of the Chinese hacking plans for the F-35. That event caused the U.S. to lose years of potential technological advantage over China.
It’s been widely reported that the aircraft will eventually include a manned and unmanned version, and will be able to carry both nuclear and conventional weapons.
The new stealth bomber is expected to enter service by the mid-2020s. It will eventually replace previous bombers including the B-1 and B-52, which are expected to retire by the 2040s.
It’s expected Lockheed Martin and Boeing will protest the decision to try to steal the lucrative award, which could delay Northrop Grumman actually getting to work, Defense News reported.
