Top secret air force bomber program moves forward.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

It is a program shrouded in secrecy.

Air Force officials over the past few years have been happy to talk publicly about how much they need a new long-range strike bomber, but have given it a "secret" classification and share few other derails.

But after a half-decade of discussions about what the aircraft should be in unclassified settings, 2014 has seen some revelations and movement in the program.

A request for proposals was released in July and two competitors are expected to respond, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin team and Northrop Grumman.

Gen. Michael Hostage, commander of the Air Force air combat command, after the RFP was released, reiterated what has been said before.

The Air Force needs an aircraft by the mid-2020s that can reach deep inside enemy territory and deliver a lethal payload, he said at an Air Force Association speech in Arlington, Virginia.

In his mind, the Air Force has bomber shortcomings now.

The B-52 and B-1 bombers do not have the ability to penetrate robust air defenses. The B-2 does, but its payload is limited, and there are only 21 of them.

"We have 21 B-2s, an aging fleet of B-52s and a rapidly aging fleet of B-ls," he said. Adversaries have to know that they have no "sanctuary," he said.

Those three aging aircraft have prompted the Air Force to name the long-range strike bomber as one of its thee top acquisition priorities along with the KC-46 tanker and the F-35.

Analysts interviewed in 2013 about the bomber's funding prospects struck a cautious note, saying funding delays could hamper the program. The outlook is much better and clearer this year, they said. "The Air Force has made the hard tradeoffs internally to keep it fully funded. And I expect it will continue to do that," said Mark Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The new bomber is "on track and pretty solid as a program," he said.

The Air Force, however, has submitted budgets that exceed the levels of the Budget Control Act. "If they do that again this year, the Air Force will have to pare back its planned spending for fiscal year '16," he added. But he has heard that the Air Force has developed a balanced budget through 2023 that fully complies with the BCA.

"While there is some concern that sequester can impact funding for the program, it's much less than some may think. I just don't see a major challenge to the program," Gunzinger said.

Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at The Teal Group, said...