Delete comment from: Elements Of Power
Hi Marauder,
Heh, The Bomber story is too early to tell, but with 10% confidence (no news as to what might be the discriminating factors involved much less which candidate has what best features), I would lean towards Northrop Grumman winning at the moment simply because they DON'T have Boeing as a 'teammate'. The last bomber program Boeing 'proper' was on (and not merely inherited) was the B-2 as an associate to Northrop. I was still in he AF at the time and remember very well how the second the ATB requirements changed to require a low penetration capability, Boeing tried to steal the contract out from under Northrop. that's the kind of teammate you don't forget IMHO. Unless Lockheed is teamed with Boeing under the axiom of "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" they should be very wary. I know senior avionics guys who were on the F-22 program and it was much the same as the B-2 program: Boeing acting like the program was doomed if they weren't involved, never taking care of their own problems without it costing the Prime more money and schedule, and all to happy to tell the world they were the reason for any successes. If the Borg pulls a culture shift, and it looks like they are trying because they want to survive in military aircraft, things might work out for the Lockmart team. But I want to see more evidence Boeing is reformed in the 'team player' area.
As to who the contract should go to, it SHOULD all come down on who flies farther with the most with the best survivability emphasis on farthest and survivability. Based upon the advertised unit cost goals, I think we can expect the LRS-B to really be a Medium Range Strike asset compared to legacy systems, and long range only compared to fighters.
This seems to also imply continued need for the B-2 and future B-2 upgrades and/or some alternative 'low density' strike options of which I PRAY do not include Prompt Global Strike with conventional ICBMs, just to strike beyond the LRS-B maximum radius (which includes huge chunks of Asia and Europe, and enable multiple ingress/egress routes so somebody just can't set up a trap on you using the only way in or out.
Oct 25, 2014, 8:09:02 PM
Posted to Hello GAO? About that F-35 ‘Report’