Northrop Grumman Corp, maker of the stealth B-2 bomber, beat out a Boeing Co and Lockheed Martin Corp team to develop and build a next-generation long-range strike bomber, the U.S. Defense Department said on Tuesday.The Zoomies say that the bombers will cost $564 million a copy. They have to be the baddest bald-faced liars around to say that.
Anyone who believes that figure is smoking crack. The B-2s were supposed to cost $571 million per, but ended up costing over four times as much. The F-35 was touted by the Air Force as being a cheaper alternative to the F-22, but the F-35s are likely to end up costing twice as much as the F-22s did.
And then there is the KC-46 program, which began in 2002 as a sorta COTS program, using airframes currently in production, but the program became mired in protests and counter-protests and as of now, the damn planes still haven't entered into operational service.
It's taken them 19 years to bring the F-35 into operational service (and I suspect that the F-35's first operational squadron is a Potemkin operation). Based on the Air Force's program management skills, only a fool would expect to see these new bombers flying operationally before 2030.
It would be nice if the stated price were respected as a quote... and became the upper cap on what we paid for them.
ReplyDeleteWe'll beat those Reds yet.