B-21

[rpm]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northrop-grumman-bomber-idUSKCN0VZ1WT

U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah James on Friday unveiled the first image of a new Northrop Grumman Corp long-range bomber and said it would be designated the B-21, as losing bidder Boeing Co said it would forego further challenges.

The program has been shrouded in secrecy since its inception for fear of revealing military secrets to potential enemies, and to avoid giving the losing bidders any details before their formal protest was rejected last week.

Northrop won a contract worth an estimated $80 billion in October to develop and build 100 new bombers, but work on the plane was delayed for months while federal auditors reviewed a protest by Boeing and its key supplier, Lockheed Martin Corp.

Boeing said on Friday it would skip any further protests with the U.S. Government Accountability Office or in the federal courts.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain said on Thursday he would block the Air Force's use of a cost-plus type of contract for the long-range bomber since it would hold the government responsible for cost overruns.

The Air Force says that only the engineering and development phase of the program, valued at $21.4 billion, is structured as a cost-plus contract with incentive fees.

Production of the first five sets of new bombers, usually the most expensive planes in a new class of aircraft, would be structured with a firm, fixed price, the service said.

Analysts say the program will be worth around $80 billion in total, providing a boon to Northrop and its key suppliers, but the Air Force has said only that it expects to pay $511 million per plane in 2010 dollars.

[DaveBB]

B-2 with more fuel and newer computers.  We need more stealth bombers to fight terrorists and insurgents.

[Brooke]

That's a fake depiction to throw off scrutiny.

Here is an actual picture.

[DaveBB]

On the subject of stealth, wouldn't a satellite be able to use radar to detect stealth aircraft from above?  What is stopping a geo-synchronous satellite from using a large radar?

[Oldman731]

The Air Force says that only the engineering and development phase of the program, valued at $21.4 billion, is structured as a cost-plus contract with incentive fees.

Oh, well, just so long as it's only the engineering and development phases, I suppose there's no harm...

- oldman

[Rolex]

$21 billion here, $80 billion there... pretty soon you're talkin' 'bout real money.

[Zimme83]

On the subject of stealth, wouldn't a satellite be able to use radar to detect stealth aircraft from above?  What is stopping a geo-synchronous satellite from using a large radar?

They are located 36.000 km above the Earth Surface, you will need a very very very powerful radar to detect and track a stealth aircraft at that distance. In theory its possible, but it will cost a lot of dollares... Better option would be a bunch in Low earth orbit (around 300-2000km above the Surface)

[Gman]

I wish they would have released the pictures of the 4 bombers used in the competition, 2 from Northrup and 2 from Boeing/Lockheed.  It'd be interesting to see if any match up with some of the recent pictures taken of various high alt flying mysterious on various aviation/coyote sites.  They said in every article there IS no B21 prototype made yet, so they must have picked various stuff from the 2 Northrup planes (maybe even 2 B/L planes) and decided to make an all new "B21" design - if the B21 was going to be close to 2 of the Northrup prototypes, you'd think they would just show that, like they did with the YF22/YF23 and X35/X32 planes.

[FLOOB]

Because our other super expensive war planes just aren't good enough to keep us from being invaded.

[Chalenge]

Because our other super expensive war planes just aren't good enough to keep us from being invaded.

They're not invaders. They're "immigrants."

[guncrasher]

$21 billion here, $80 billion there... pretty soon you're talkin' 'bout real money.

in the old days we could have a good war for what now we pay for a year of peace.


semp

[morfiend]

On the subject of stealth, wouldn't a satellite be able to use radar to detect stealth aircraft from above?  What is stopping a geo-synchronous satellite from using a large radar?

  Why use radar?   Why not use optics?

   We can see a fly's dropping on the news paper,sry tablet from sats,I would think a large dark plane would be easy peasy!


     

[FLOOB]

It's such stupid BS. Every day, every-other news story is "Fear Putin!" and "North Korea is Going to Blow Us Up!" We need more billion dollar aeroplanes to send to bases in South Korea and Estonia or we'll all be speaking korean soon comrade!

[eagl]

Its actually the B-2.1

[branch37]

They are located 36.000 km above the Earth Surface, you will need a very very very powerful radar to detect and track a stealth aircraft at that distance. In theory its possible, but it will cost a lot of dollares... Better option would be a bunch in Low earth orbit (around 300-2000km above the Surface)

If you had a radar system that powerful wouldn't it be too powerful?  What I mean by that is wouldn't it be very difficult for the operator to distinguish stealth aircraft from ground clutter and birds ect?

Keep in mind my knowledge of radar systems is VERY basic.