100 aircraft at $550 million each, $80 billion overall contract. It's broken down somewhat. Phase 1 pays $21.4 billion and Northrup will deliver 21 aircraft. Then subsequent phases will buy another 79 aircraft. Looking at the over all contract for 100 aircraft they estimate the cost at $511 million each, and there is a cap of $550 million. Assume cost enhancements push the cost right up to the cap. That looks like $55 billion for deliverable aircraft and $25 billion for non-recurring engineering. That's best case. Aircraft to become operational in 2025. Let's see if USAF has pulled up its socks enough to award a contract and not have it disputed in court. Lockheed Martin was the other bidder, they have plenty of lawyers to challenge a contract award.
This comes from the Wall St Journal, and it also made NPR. No discussion of LRS-B performance, range, speed, payload, radar cross section. The Journal suggested that the LRS-B mission would be strategic nuclear strike against Russia or China.
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