Long-Range Bomber’s Development Would Get $12 Billion

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-06/long-range-bomber-s-development-would-get-12-billion.html

The U.S. Air Force’s five-year plan calls for spending $11.8 billion to develop a new long-range bomber, one of the Pentagon’s top weapons projects, according to military budget figures.

The aircraft would replace Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC)’s aging B-2 stealth bombers. The Defense Department sees it as vital to reaching far-flung, heavily defended locations worldwide. Northrop may compete with the two biggest federal contractors, Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Boeing Co. (BA), which plan to bid as a team.

While the Air Force has said it may build as many as 100 of the bombers in a program potentially topping $55 billion, the service’s new five-year plan released this week didn’t include production funds for those aircraft.

Development spending would more than double to $914 million in fiscal 2015 from this year, according to service budget projections obtained by Bloomberg News. It would steadily climb in the next several years, from $1.6 billion in fiscal 2016 to $3.5 billion in 2019, the figures show.