Northrop Grumman [NOC] cannot say much about its preparation for production of the Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) because of a pending protest and the highly classified nature of the program. But the company is not missing the chance to pat itself on the back for being chosen by the Air Force to take on the $80 billion contract.
The company has embarked on a series of celebratory events at various facilities across the nation to celebrate its achievement and congratulate employees associated with the program. One of the brief events was held Dec. 18 at Northrop Grumman’s relatively new campus in McLean, Va., with state and national legislators in attendance. CEO Wes Bush said the Air Force affirmed its commitment to technological superiority by choosing Northrop Grumman.
“It was an amazing decision because it sends a message–a huge message–that the Air Force is absolutely committed to technological superiority for the long term,” Bush said. “That’s what we’re talking about here: A very long-term program that is at the center of our national security.”
“We actually are the only company that has the experience necessary to do this job,” Bush said Friday. “No one else has 35 years of advanced stealth capability. That is Northrop Grumman.”
Losing competitors Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA] disagree with that assessment, as evidenced by the protest the companies filed as a team with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in early November.
In a joint statement at the time, the companies called the selection process “fundamentally flawed” and said the cost evaluation performed by the Air Force did not properly reward the contractors’ proposals to break the “upward-spiraling historical cost curves of defense acquisitions.” The two companies also said the Air Force did not properly value the relative or comparative risk of the competitors’ ability to perform, as required by the solicitation.
GAO’s decision is due Feb. 16, 100 days from the protest filing.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) came out strong in favor of Northrop Grumman handling the contract to build between 80 and 100 bombers, assuming a good part of the work would be performed in his state.
“I think the Air Force made the right choice, the smart choice, the best value choice for the taxpayer and I can assure you that we are there to defend this choice no matter what kind of protest” Northrop Grumman’s contract award faces.
Reps. Jerry Connelly and Don Beyer, both Democrats, sent messages congratulating Northrop Grumman on its selection to build LRS-B, but were unable to attend because they were busy voting on the $1 trillion omnibus bill that will fund the government for the next two years. Maurice Jones, Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade, also was on hand to offer his and Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D) congratulations.
The omnibus bill passed Friday trimmed the bomber program’s budget by $510 million, reducing the $1.2 billion request to $736.2 billion because of changes necessary to “rephrase funds to [the program’s] current schedule,” budget justification documents state.
The LRSB contract is estimated to be worth around $80 billion. The decision to have Northrop Grumman build LRSB effectively preserves the company’s defense aircraft manufacturing plant and spreads the Air Force’s three priority modernization programs evenly among the three largest aerospace players. Lockheed Martin is currently building the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Boeing holds the contract for the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker.
Northrop Grumman’s 35 years of experience building stealth aircraft was gained as the prime contractor for the B-2 Spirit bomber. That once highly secretive aircraft was built at a Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, Calif. Company representatives were careful to explain that the location of the celebratory events was no indication of where work on the bomber program would be performed. Because of the secrecy of LRS-B and the pending protest, the company is barred from divulging worksites or the number of employees involved.
However, the company does own a 1 million square foot hanger/production facility in Palmdale that was specifically designed to build 132 B-2 bombers. That building was built to be a secure compartmentalized information facility (SCIF) that is certified to handle classified information. Northrop Grumman also has another 2 million square feet of real estate at various properties in the vicinity.
Northrop Grumman announced last year it would establish an LRS-B engineering center in Melbourne, Fla., if incentivized with tax breaks.
Bush has said publicly that the company would build an advanced strategic aircraft of some sort in California if granted the same $400 million in tax breaks that were offered to Lockheed Martin acting as a subcontractor on a strategic aircraft there.