Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B)

Aviation week had two opinion pieces (Commentary) on the LRS-B.  Neither of them breathed so much as a word about the contract challenge that they emailed to magazine subscriber's last week.  The two commentary pieces called the program well managed, the bids reasonable.  Nothing about the contract award.  They did say that the costing was based upon "Average Procurement Unit Cost" as opposed to "Unit Recurring Flyaway Cost".   Av Week says  the Average Procurement Unit Cost includes spares, support equipment and other essential stuff, which the Unit Flyaway did not.  Spares can cost.  Engines make up roughly a quarter of the cost of an aircraft.  Back in the day, we had four spare J75 engines on base to support 20 single engine fighters.   If  LRS-B is spared to the same level, that increases the price of the engine buy by maybe 20% over the life of the program.   Spare gyros, spare radars, spare landing gear, all that is expensive.  Support equipment, we used to call that "ground power",  air compressors, generator sets, hydraulic mules, tractors, bomb lifts, cockpit ladders, air conditioning sets, tow bars, it all adds up.