The US Air Force is poised to deliver the decision of the decade, with reports that the Long-Range Strike Bomber contract award could be announced as early as 27 October. Two key steps must take place, and Bloomberg reports that the first has already taken place.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, convened a meeting on 23 October to decide whether LRS-B should advance to the development phase after several years of classified analysis, prototyping and technological risk-reduction.
Once the air force has a signed “Milestone B acquisition decision memorandum” in hand, the service can move quickly to award the multibillion-dollar development contract, choosing either a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team or Northrop Grumman. That contract will include three or four test aircraft plus options for the first 21 production examples.
Mark Gunzinger, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments says the two competing offers appear to be at a higher level of maturity than any other programme he has seen, but questions about who might win or what the winning design more look like are highly speculative.
READ: Flightglobal