New bomber will be boon for U.S. aerospace industry.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

After the Air Force announced that it was awarding the long-range strike bomber contract to Northrop Grumman pundits and critics began chiming in.

The program would hit a fiscal bow wave in the 2020s and the service may not be able to purchase the 100 bombers required, they said. The estimated price per aircraft was artificially low. The mid-2020 deadline might not be met. And then, the runners-up to the competition, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office stating that the award wasn't fair.

Despite the cloud of pessimism surrounding the program's prospects, the contract award--worth an estimated $80 billion in 2010 dollars--will be a shot in the arm for the U.S. aerospace industry, many of the same analysts said.

"There really is quite a lot of good happening here," said Andrew Hunter, director of the defense-industrial group and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Stuthes.

"Of course, every program looks wonderful when the contract is first awarded," he added. "The story always gets more complicated as it goes through the development process. Transitioning into production is always challenging and there are always struggles, but most come through on the other end and start looking like model programs. The C-17 is an example of that."

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of the Teal Group, said: "This really does advance the aeronautical art." The LRSB is a so-called "clean-sheet" design. It isn't a derivative of previous aircraft, which is the case in current fixed- and rotary-wing military aircraft programs, he said. "It serves as a stimulant to U.S. national military capabilities [and] industrial and technological capabilities. The development of a reconnaissance-strike complex requires the development of quite a lot of new things."

Hunter added: "I think there are going to be bumps in the road--100 percent--but ultimately I think this program is postured for success pretty effectively."

Just how big of a boon to industry the program will be isn't fully known because of the classified nature of the program. Northrop Grumman is not revealing the names of its partners.

Hunter said the award would have had different impacts on the industrial base depending on the winner.

"The point was made by many that Boeing and Lockheed would have an advantage because they are so much bigger," he said in an interview. But Northrop Grumman has the capacity to do much of the subsystem work...