NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S hopes of an additional procurement of 20 of its B-2 stealth bombers have been dealt a potentially fatal blow, by a congressionally sponsored study, which claims that a follow-on order is unnecessary.
The long awaited Institute for Defense Analyses Heavy Bomber Force Study concludes that the Pentagon does not need 20 additional bombers.
The study supports the Clinton Administration's plan for a force of 20 B-2s, 95 Rockwell International B-1Bs and 66 Boeing B-52Hs to last until 2014.
Disclosing the study's conclusions, the Pentagon's acquisition chief Paul Kaminski says that the planned bomber force can handle two nearly simultaneous major regional conflicts without doubling B-2 numbers.
He says that it is more cost-effective to buy additional quantities of "smart" munitions and convert the bombers to conventional roles.
Kaminski says that 20 additional B-2s would cost nearly $25 billion, but Northrop Grumman has offered to provide them for $15 billion. He adds that doubling the inventory of smart weapons would cost no more than $13 billion.
The Pentagon will consider redirecting $125 million in funds now allocated to preserving the B-2 production base.
"Those funds may be used more effectively by re-allocating them to needed weapons or bomber-upgrade programmes," says Kaminski. He says that a final decision on redirecting the remaining funding will not come before 1 July.
The US Congress will have the final say, and Northrop Grumman says that US lawmakers "...must now decide whether to accept the assumptions and methodology upon which this particular study's conclusions are based".
Source: Flight International
