LRS-B Lots and Cost

The Long-Range Strike Bomber contract—expected to be awarded in September—will be a cost-plus arrangement, but will include options for “five aircraft production lots,” which will be on a fixed-price basis, Air Force officials told Air Force Magazine. If the Air Force sticks to its plan to buy 80-100 LRS-Bs, that means production lots of potentially 16-20 aircraft each. Officials didn’t elaborate on whether the lots would all be evenly sized, or when production would start. Also, in the latest “1043 report”—an annual report to Congress detailing the Pentagon’s 10-year plans for nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and the “nuclear weapons complex”—the Air Force stated a figure for the LRS-B of $58.4 billion. That number was incorrect, however. The service has stated the revised figure as $41.7 billion in then-year dollars. According to the report, the number includes research, development, test and evaluation, operations and support, and personnel, but not overhead, “such as personnel assigned to higher headquarters who work on nuclear deterrence-related issues.” The stated figure also doesn’t necessarily cover all the LRS-Bs to be built, but USAF has said from the outset that it will set a hard figure of $550 million flyaway cost for each bomber (in 2010 dollars) as a contract requirement.