B-3!
By 
Y’all probably missed out on the real excitement Tuesday afternoon:
Northrop Grumman Corp., maker of the B-2 stealth bomber, landed the long-awaited contract to develop the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation bomber.
The Falls Church, Virginia-based contractor led a team that beat out another headed by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. Watch for the losing bidder to immediately protest the award and delay the program by at least three months.
The $21.4 billion initial contract calls for Northrop to develop the first 21 production aircraft, along with related engineering and manufacturing work. The planes are scheduled to be ready for operational flights in 2025.
The service has said it wants to buy between 80 and 100 new bombers at no more than $550 million apiece to replace its aging fleet of B-52 Stratofortresses made by Boeing Co. and a least a portion of its B-1 fleet.
The $550 million price tag is a joke, of course. It’s probably for the best that Northrup Grumman won the competition; means that not everything is in the Lockheed basket, saves some jobs in the aviation industry long-run, etc. As I suggested earlier, the real key to success avoiding particularly catastrophic failure will be to limit the ambition of the program; the USAF is going to want everything, which will undoubtedly lead to bloat, etc.
Also, everyone seems convinced that no one in the US government is sensible enough just to call the damn thing the B-3.