Boeing and Lockheed to Vie for Next Generation Fighter Contract

Northrop Grumman, the American multinational aerospace and defense technology concern, has withdrawn from contention as a prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation fighter program. Conversely, the storied aerospace marque has surpassed a milestone along the B-21 Raider’s lengthy and tortuous path toward its first flight.

Northrop’s withdrawal from the next-generation fighter competition—as announced by company CEO Kathy Warden during a second-quarter 2023 earnings call—leaves Boeing and Lockheed-Martin as the remaining bidders vying for opportunity to build the fighter aircraft at the heart of the USAF’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. Subject aircraft is slated to commence replacing Lockheed-Martin’s F-22 Raptor as the U.S.’s premier air-superiority fighter in the early 2030s.

Ms. Warden stated: “We have notified the U.S. Air Force that we’re not planning to respond to the NGAD [request for proposals] as a prime.” Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics division remains, however, positioned to earn a subcontractor role to either Boeing’s or Lockheed-Martin’s bid to land the lucrative NGAD contract.

Moreover, Northrop Grumman remains in the running for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX fighter development contract. Slated to enter service around 2040, the F/A-XX will replace Boeing’s proven and popular F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft.

In point of fact, Northrop, in the mid-1970s, designed the YF-17 prototype that evolved into McDonnell Douglas’s F/A-18A/B. The company departed the fighter market in 1991, however, following its YF-23 prototype’s loss of the USAF’s Advanced Tactical Fighter contract to Lockheed’s YF-22. The latter machine went on to garner international renown as the formidable F-22 Raptor.

Notwithstanding its withdrawal from the NGAD competition, Northrop Grumman remains active in developing concepts—such as the cranked-kit design SG-2 and the Model 437, an uncrewed version of the Model 401 Sierra—germane to a new class of Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics division, meanwhile, is advancing by degrees upon the elusive objective of getting the B-21 Raider airborne.

Rolled out on 02 December 2022, the B-21 Raider, the USAF’s next-generation stealth bomber, reportedly achieved an as-of-yet undisclosed power-on milestone during 2023’s second quarter.

Facts pertaining to the B-21 remain exceedingly scarce. In a November 2022 statement, Northrop Grumman confided the bomber “has … been designed as the lead component of a larger family of systems that will deliver Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), electronic attack, and multi-domain networking capabilities.”

The statement confirmed, more or less, that the B-21 will rely upon external support platforms or systems; although whether or not these are escort aircraft, bomber-launched vehicles, satellites, or some other technology remains unclear.

USAF officials subsequently took to describing the B-21 as an “ISR node deep within enemy-controlled airspace.”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall recently announced he was abandoning plans to develop autonomous, long-range, collaborative combat aircraft meant to escort the B-21 deep into enemy territory. Kendall’s announcement did not, however, rule out possibilities the likes of the bomber launching decoys, jamming vehicles, or ISR-collecting drones.

Northrop Grumman maintains it has successfully demonstrated migration of B-21 ground systems data to “a cloud environment.” Subject demonstration included “the B-21 digital twin, that will support B-21 operations and sustainment. This robust cloud-based digital infrastructure will result in a more maintainable and sustainable aircraft with lower-cost infrastructure.”

A digital twin is a finely detailed digital model of a system that allows changes—and their ramifications—to be explored by engineers with far greater fidelity and speed than older design and development technologies allowed.

Northrop Grumman alleged the B-21’s open architecture will preclude the pattern of block upgrades characteristic of legacy military aircraft.

“To meet the evolving threat environment, the B-21 has been designed from day one for rapid upgradeability,” the company said. “Unlike earlier generation aircraft, the B-21 will not undergo block upgrades. New technology, capabilities and weapons will be seamlessly incorporated through agile software upgrades and built-in hardware flexibility. This will ensure the B-21 Raider can continuously meet the evolving threat head on for decades to come.”

Northrop Grumman added that, as a “digital bomber,” the B-21 “uses agile software development, advanced manufacturing techniques, and digital engineering tools to help mitigate production risk” and “enable modern sustainment practices.”

The company explained that maintainability was set as “an equally important requirement to stealth performance” at the beginning of the program; and “long-term operations and sustainment affordability [have] been a B-21 program priority from the start.” Working collaboratively on maintainability with the Air Force, the company said it’s “driving more affordable, predictable operations and sustainment outcomes.”

Northrop Grumman has described the B-21 as a “sixth-generation” aircraft—a term which has yet to be clearly defined. Fifth-generation aircraft employ a high degree of stealth and sensor fusion for high degrees of situational awareness. How and to what extent sixth-generation aircraft might improve on their forebears’ combat effectiveness remains to be seen.

Various descriptions of “sixth generation” being bandied about the defense industry suggest such aircraft would feature “optionally manned” capability—which the B-21 is meant to have—better situational awareness, better stealth, and potential use of directed-energy weapons—among other possible attributes.

Of stealth, Northrop Grumman set forth that it’s applying “continuously advancing technology, employing new manufacturing techniques and materials to ensure the B-21 will defeat the anti-access, area-denial systems it will face.”

The B-21 “benefits from more than three decades of strike and stealth technology,” the company avers, referring to its work on the B-2 Spirit bomber, the YF-23 fighter prototype, the Tacit Blue stealth demonstrator and F-117 antecedent, the AGM-137 Tri-Service Standoff Missile, and presumed numerous classified programs.

“It is the next evolution of the Air Force strategic bomber fleet,” Northrop Grumman declared of the B-21, calling the aircraft a “visible and flexible deterrent.”

Calling the B-21 the “backbone of the future for U.S. airpower,” Northrop Grumman said the aircraft will “deliver a new era of capability and flexibility through advanced integration of data, sensors and weapons. Capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear payloads, the B-21 will be one of the most effective aircraft in the sky, with the ability to use a broad mix of stand-off and direct attack munitions.”

The company noted that the B-21 was named “Raider” to commemorate Doolittle’s Raiders—a group of 16 B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, each crewed by five U.S. Army Air Corps volunteers, that launched from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet on the morning of 18 April 1942 to carry out the first U.S. offensive against Imperial Japan following the 07 December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.

Air Force officials have expressed expectations, albeit tentative ones, that the B-21 will embark upon its maiden flight before the end of 2023.

FMI: www.northropgrumman.com