If production costs were fixed at the current level, the Air Force could buy 2.5 B-21s in fiscal ’23 nearly five in fiscal ’24 six in fiscal ’25 and between six and seven per year after, or just over 20 for the five-year period. The B-21’s predecessor, the Next-Generation Bomber, was canceled because Pentagon officials deemed its cost too high and its capability too “exquisite.” Meeting the price cap was deemed a “critical parameter” of the program, the Air Force said. That figure was intended to be an average unit cost over a production run of about 100 airplanes, and early examples of a new military aircraft always cost the most, when the learning curve is highest and the most tweaks tend to be made to the design. However, at the outset of the program, the cost of the bomber was capped at $550 million each in base year 2010 dollars, or $729.25 million in current dollars. The Air Force has opted to classify how many B-21s it plans to buy for the requested amount. For the period ’23 through ’27, the planned B-21 production total request is $19.536 billion. The 2022 amount is likely to be for materials and long-lead items for initial production.
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