The U.S. Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) has a designation: the B-21.
Air Force Secretary Deborah James revealed a concept drawing of the new U.S. bomber, which will be built by Northrop Grumman, at the Air Force Association’s annual air warfare symposium in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 26.
Based on the size, it is likely that scaled-up technologies and components could be drawn from the still-classified RQ-180 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned air vehicle. But unlike other recent Northrop designs, the B-21 does not appear to be a cranked kite design. Rather, it resembles the original B-2 design and appears to be a twin. That was intentional, James noted in her speech.
“The B-21 has been designed from the beginning based on a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology,” James said. She added that the Air Force will be accepting suggestions for the name of the new bomber and announce them at the Air Force Association conference in September.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin will not pursue further challenges to the $80 billion LRS-Bcontract awarded to Northrop Grumman last October. On Feb. 16, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a contract protest by the two companies.
Boeing had argued that the Air Force’s evaluation of the price in the cost-reimbursement contract of $21.4 billion in 2010 dollars for the engineering and management development phase of the contract was flawed, according to the GAO.
While the production cost of the first 21 aircraft remains classified, the Air Force has said “the fixed-price production award supports the average per-unit cost of $511 million per aircraft,” according to a statement from the GAO’s Ralph White.
With the go-ahead from the GAO, the program has entered development. The Air Force plans to begin fielding the B-21 in the mid-2020s.