100,000,000,000 Reasons Why America's New Stealth Bomber Matters

Dave Majumdar

Security, Asia

The new bomber could determine the fate of the U.S. defense-aerospace industry as industry heavyweights vie to secure a program that could be worth more than $100 billion.

The U.S. Air Force is expected to award a contract for its secretive Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program later this month. The LRS-B award could determine the fate of the U.S. defense-aerospace industry as Northrop Grumman and a combined Boeing/Lockheed Martin team vie to secure a program that could be worth more than $100 billion. For Boeing and Northrop, the LRS-B is a must win proposition--Lockheed, of course, has the gargantuan $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to fall back upon.

Though it has a storied past building warplanes like the F-14 Tomcat, F-5 Tiger and B-2 Spirit, Northrop does not currently build any manned aircraft save for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye and parts of the F-35. These days, the company is mostly known for building unmanned aircraft like the Global Hawk and the Navy’s X-47B demonstrator aircraft. Additionally, aerospace industry trade journal Aviation Week reported last year that Northrop has developed and built a new long range unmanned reconnaissance aircraft called the RQ-180 for the Air Force. However, none of these are high volume projects that would sustain Northrop as a major aerospace prime contractor until the Pentagon launches next-generation tactical aircraft programs for the Navy and Air Force—the only other glimmer of hope is the Air Force’s T-X trainer effort. As such, the company must win the LRS-B contract.