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| Artists concepts of LRSB |
No one knows what the Air Force’s top-secret new bomber will look like. But the service keeps saying it knows how much it’s going to cost. That’s what makes the Air Force’s $25 billion price tag error so disconcerting.
The problem began last year, when the service told Congress the yet-to-be-built Long-Range Strike Bomber would cost $33.1 billion between 2015 and 2025. It recently updated the estimate (from 2016 to 2026) to $58.4 billion—a hike of $25.3 billion, or 76%.
As Bloomberg News reporter Tony Capaccio noted in a question to officials this week during a “State of the Air Force” briefing at the Pentagon, the service this year estimated the so-called Long Range Strike Bomber, or LRSB, would cost $58 billion over a decade, up from a previous estimate of just $33 billion — though the correct figure is closer to $42 billion.
Tell Congress How Much LRSB Will Cost: Rep. Speier To SecAF James « Breaking Defense - Defense industry news, analysis and commentary
WASHINGTON: A top House defense Democrat wants answers from Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James about costs for the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRSB), which is supposed to be built at a fixed price of $500 million a copy.
“Given the importance of this issue and the magnitude of the discrepancy, the Air Force must explain the nature and cause of this error,” says the letter from Speier, who is the top Democrat on the
House Armed Services oversight and investigations subcommittee. Spear’s office shared the letter with us with an eye on this afternoon’s press conference (3:30 pm EST) with James and Air Force Chief of Staff Mark Welsh.
The Air Force recently estimated the 10-year costs of the aircraft at $41.7 billion, a considerable variance from last year’s $33.1 billion and from this year’s $58.4 billion contained in reports about the Defense Department’s nuclear capabilities.
These reports included inaccurate numbers, but the Air Force says this in reply:
“The 10-year cost estimate provided by the Air Force for LRS-B in Table 4 of the FY2015 and FY2016 Section 1043 Report was incorrect. The correct 10-YEAR cost entry for both the FY2015 and FY2016 reports is $41.7B. Again, the program costs have remained stable,” Air Force spokesman An Stefanek says in an email.
Related/Background
- The Air Force’s $25 Billion Bomber Blunder | TIME
- Will the US Air Force’s Top-Secret Bomber Cost $3 Billion Per Plane? | The Diplomat
- text of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ‘Buck’ McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.
- Next Big Future: US B-3 stealth bomber planned for 2025 will try to get through pickets of large anti-stealth radar drones
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