Last week, the U.S. Air Force announced the selection of Northrop Grumman to build the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), which will replace the aging B-52 and B-1 bomber aircraft fleets. Under the estimated $21 billion contract, the Air Force will acquire a total fleet of 100 new bombers. Over the next year, Northrop will begin the Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) phase of the contract where components will be gathered and eventually integrated to develop flying prototypes that can be used for test purposes to further mature the design of the aircraft before actual low rate production begins.
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