In an effort to to shore up support for its newly-awarded Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) contract, Northrop Grumman launched a new website making the case for why America needs to fund the new bomber program in the coming decades.
Yesterday, the U.S. Air Force chose Northrop over a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team to build 80-100 future bombers for the service. With the recent spate of bid protests by losing contractors and the inability of Congress to provide the Department of Defense (DOD) with funding it requires for many of its critical programs, the website appears to be a move to support both the contract and the LRS-B program as well.
Northrop Grumman graphic from the new website for the LRS-B program.
Most noticeable on the website is a call to action button that enables the visitor to send a pre-written letter of support of the LRS-B to a range of top U.S. leadership, including President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and other key DOD and congressional leaders.
The Air Force’s quest to build a next-generation bomber to face a new generation of sensors and defenses as well as replace its elderly B-52 and aging B-1 fleets has been ongoing for years, but in Next Generation Bomber form was canceled in favor of what would become LRS-B. LRS-B will constitute the largest military aircraft contract since the JSF program.
http://www.americasnewbomber.com/