US Air Force Long Range Strike Bomber Update

US Air Force may Delay Selection of LRSB to September:

The Air Force award of a contract for the long-range strike bomber, originally expected last spring, could take up to three more months, Air Force officials said.

Bill LaPlante, the service's undersecretary for acquisition, said the program announcement will be "done when it's done" and the Air Force wants to have it right instead of quickly. The program will be flying with the service for the next 50 years, so the initial announcement does not need to be rushed.

"It is more important that it gets underway at the right time and we get it right," LaPlante said Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.

LaPlante's comments come the day after Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told Reuters that the decision on the award could slip into September.

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Congressman Rogers Wants LRSB Sped up:

The chairman of the influential US House committee on strategic forces says the air force’s long-range strike bomber fleet should be delivered sooner than the current estimates, which place “initial capability in the 2020s” and full capability in the 2030s.

The LRS-B programme started in 2012 to buy 80 to 100 new bombers, and the classified programme is only just now about to enter the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase.

Congressman Mike Rogers said at an 8 July Mitchell Institute forum in Washington that the Pentagon has a poor track record when it comes to fielding new weapons systems, and reforms being considered by the House and Senate should be applied to the bomber programme to speed up the procurement process.

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