October 27, 201510 yr Northrop beats out Lockheed/Boeing. https://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2015/10/27/northrop-grumman-wins-usaf-bomber-contract/74661394/
October 28, 201510 yr Well at least we're not leasing them. Maybe no one will go to jail (like Darlene druyen) and this contract will stick with Northrop. Serious question: what's the break even cost point at which survivable manned bombers are no longer worth it compared to cruise missiles. I'm sure someone on staff somewhere has crunched those numbers.
October 28, 201510 yr Deptula crunched just that number in this White Paper. (I haven't read it yet, but I saw it sitting on a colleagues desk a few weeks ago.)
October 28, 201510 yr Well at least we're not leasing them. Maybe no one will go to jail (like Darlene druyen) and this contract will stick with Northrop. Serious question: what's the break even cost point at which survivable manned bombers are no longer worth it compared to cruise missiles. I'm sure someone on staff somewhere has crunched those numbers. I'm sure that paper covers the issues of getting your cruise missiles close enough to launch so they don't need to be viper-sized.
October 28, 201510 yr Well at least we're not leasing them. Maybe no one will go to jail (like Darlene druyen) and this contract will stick with Northrop. Serious question: what's the break even cost point at which survivable manned bombers are no longer worth it compared to cruise missiles. I'm sure someone on staff somewhere has crunched those numbers.Well bombers can still reasonably make it to a target when GPS gets jammed, can't say the same for cruise missiles.
February 26, 20169 yr Well here it is...The B-21. Looks like B-2 2.0 Sec Deb is taking suggestions for the name. Hopefully it is something a little tougher than "Spirit" https://www.defensenews.com/story/breaking-news/2016/02/26/b-21-bomber-air-force-lrsb/80976160/ Edited February 26, 20169 yr by b52gator
February 26, 20169 yr Well here it is...The B-21. Looks like B-2 2.0 Sec Deb is taking suggestions for the name. Hopefully it is something a little tougher than "Spirit" I think it literally is B-2.1...no imagination from whoever comes up with these haha Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
February 26, 20169 yr 4 hours ago, b52gator said: Well here it is...The B-21. Looks like B-2 2.0 Sec Deb is taking suggestions for the name. Hopefully it is something a little tougher than "Spirit" "B-21 Trump" Because even if you ignore it, it's not going away.
February 26, 20169 yr Wonder if they will give this one auto throttles? Seems like something you would want for an airplane that flies around the world non stop to go to war........
February 26, 20169 yr 18 minutes ago, Guardian said: Wonder if they will give this one auto throttles? Seems like something you would want for an airplane that flies around the world non stop to go to war........ Or a Voice Activated Throttle System (VATS) like on the BUFF.
February 26, 20169 yr As in "power up" or "torque down" we have that too. Sometimes it doesn't work well or not at all.
February 27, 20169 yr 2 hours ago, b52gator said: Or a Voice Activated Throttle System (VATS) like on the BUFF. I heard "GO YOU FAT BASTARD!" is the command for setting TRT... can anyone confirm?
February 27, 20169 yr 3 hours ago, Breckey said: As in "power up" or "torque down" we have that too. Sometimes it doesn't work well or not at all. Hal Hornburg flew with us back when he was ACC CC. He had zero knowledge of the BUFF so we messed with him a bit. The throttle cables run right above the Radar Nav and Nav's head downstairs. When he flew with us the pilots showed him the amazing technology that was the VATS. I think I've told this story before here on BO, but anyway he's up in the IP seat and the pilots are telling him about VATS and he's completely perplexed when the AC says throttle up on 4-8. Throttles move forward, speed increases, Hal is beside himself. The demo goes on in various ways for about 15-20 mins. It was a good flight.
February 27, 20169 yr 10 hours ago, xaarman said: B-21 Spirit II It's a typo, they left out the decimal. It's a B-2.1
February 28, 20169 yr On 2/26/2016 at 10:37 AM, xaarman said: B-21 Spirit II At least they're acknowledging in the name that it's a replacement for the B-2, not the B-52.
September 20, 20169 yr Well they gave her a name. The B-21 Raider...I can get behind that. https://www.popsci.com/air-forces-newest-bomber-is-b-21-raider Edited September 20, 20169 yr by b52gator
September 20, 20169 yr After Sully, Castaway and Apollo 13 I suspect we won't be naming any aircraft after a Tom Hanks movie anytime soon.
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