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The company would then be paid $550 million to build each plane - an award that could reach $60 billion.Ĭritics say the cost of the contract is bound to skyrocket, similar to what happened when Northrop built the B-2 bomber in the 1980s. In the first phase, Northrop will receive more than $20 billion to develop the bomber. “Today, it’s vital to innovate and reinvest in the people, strategies and technologies that will allow America’s military to be dominant in the second aerospace century,” Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday as the contract was announced. The Pentagon says it needs the new warplane to replace its aging fleet of B-1 bombers, which were designed in the 1970s, and even older B-52s. The plane may also someday have the capability to fly as a drone. Military officials have said the new bomber would eventually be equipped to fly nuclear weapons. There is no word on what the as-yet unnamed bomber will look like or how fast and high it will fly.īoth teams had drawn up plans for the bomber under classified contracts in the Pentagon’s so-called black budget. Little is known about the new stealth bomber. In a joint release, the companies said they were talking to the Air Force “before determining our next steps.” On Tuesday, executives at the two rivals said they were disappointed. Northrop was seen as the underdog in the battle for the contract, fighting against the Boeing-Lockheed team that was considered better funded and more politically connected.Īnalysts said Tuesday that they expect Boeing and Lockheed to challenge the decision. Legislators gave Lockheed a similar tax incentive.

Last year, Knight wrote a bill when he was a state legislator that will give Northrop, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., a tax credit of up to nearly $500 million in return for performing much of the work in Palmdale. Steve Knight, a Republican who represents the Antelope Valley, said that a top Northrop executive had told him earlier that the plane “would be rolling out in Palmdale.”

Northrop said little Tuesday about its plans other than releasing a short written statement from Bush.īut Rep. Two decades ago, Northrop built the bat-winged B-2 stealth bomber at the same site in the Mojave Desert about 70 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. “Aerospace is what we do, and what we’ll continue to do.” “We’re very excited,” Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said of the Pentagon’s decision.
