The U.S. Air Force does not want to publicly disclose the Long Range Strike Bomber contract’s value because the military service believes a disclosure may give adversaries a hint about the aircraft’s specifications, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.
Randall Walden, director of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, told Sen. John McCain in a letter obtained by Bloomberg’s Anthony Capaccio that a correlation exists between the cost and the weight of an aircraft.
“This correlation makes calculating aircraft range and payload decisively easier for our adversaries looking to develop countermeasures, ” Walden explained to McCain, according to Capaccio’s report.
Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) won the LRSB contract in October 2015 and the Air Force’s decision was subsequently upheld by the Government Accountability Office.
The Defense Department estimates engineering, manufacturing and development of the Air Force’s future bomber will cost $23.54 billion in 2016 dollars.
