New stealth bomber can't be another B-2.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra
• Position: Defense Insider

The Pentagon's new budget proposal gives the Air Force the green light to begin designing a new stealth bomber with a target date for starting production in the mid-2020s. The goal is to acquire up to 100 new aircraft at a cost of about $55 billion.

But skeptics already are casting doubts on the plan. They consistently point to the B-2 batwing stealth bomber as the poster child for a military procurement gone awry. The Pentagon spent hundreds of billions of dollars on that program only to end up with 21 aircraft, each with a $2 billion price tag.

The Air Force is not about to repeat the mistakes, said Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force chief...