The Air Force is getting “very close” to announcing the winner of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB) competition, a key program thought to be as worth around $55 billion.
“Those words are chosen with deliberate choice,” Assistant Air Force Secretary for Acquisition William LaPlante told reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon. “I’m not saying months away, I’m not saying soon….the message here is we’re very close.”
The announcement is a departure from the “couple of months away” talking point the Air Force had been using when asked about a LRSB contract award. The announcement is highly anticipated as it could start a sea change among United States military aircraft manufacturers. The competition is down to B-2 incumbent Northrop Grumman [NOC] and a Boeing– [BA] Lockheed Martin [LMT] team. Experts believe the loser of the competition could end its military aircraft development.
LaPlante said an elite Air Force program office called the Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) has been working on LRSB since its inception in 2011. The RCO expedites development and fielding of select Defense Department combat support and weapons systems by leveraging defense-wide technology development efforts and existing operational capabilities, according to a service statement.
The RCO reports to a board of directors comprised of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall; Air Force Secretary Deborah James and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. LaPlante called the RCO a streamlined acquisition shop that does some of the Air Force’s most sensitive and important work that also has an incredible track record on delivering “eye watering capabilities.
“It has our best people there,” LaPlante said. “They love their jobs.”
LaPlante said one previous RCO program was the X-37B, the Air Force’s secretive unmanned space plane. The X-37B is a 29-foot-long, shuttle-like spacecraft designed to operate in low-earth orbit (LEO) at a nominal speed of about 17,500 miles per hour. Air Force officials rarely comment on the objectives of the X-37B, but Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten said recently he “liked the message it sends.”
One of the RCO’s first projects was deploying significant upgrades to the Integrated Air Defense System (IADS) to meet critical counter-terrorism objectives before the January 2005 presidential inauguration. The RCO in 2009, in conjunction with MIT Lincoln Labs, was also developing a sensitive airborne receiver system.
LaPlante said the RCO was modeled after successful acquisition programs from the past, including the F-117 Nighthawk. The F-117, he said, had a small, empowered group of requirements officials, warfighters, acquisition professionals and aircraft maintainers. These officials on the F-117 program, LaPlante said, were empowered, had protection by leadership and streamlined processes. The F-117, developed by Lockheed Martin’s SkunkWorks program, was created in the 1970s to fill a requirement for attacking high-value targets without being detected by enemy radar.