"USAF Expects Long-Range Bomber RFP in Fall" Topic

"The US Air Force intends to issue a request for proposal (RFP) on its new long-range strike bomber this fall, according to the service's top civilian official.

"We expect that there will be a full RFP, a final RFP and a competition probably in the fall timeframe," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said at a Feb. 26 event, hosted by Bloomberg.

James also told the audience that there are "two teams at present who are working on pre-proposal types of activities, preparing to take the next step in competition on the long-range strike bomber."…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Can't afford to fund A-10 maintenance/mothballing, but are submitting RFPs for this?

And, which do you think will be of more use in the next 20 years?

The madness continues.

Another program doomed to cost overruns and spread out across the states so to make it politically impossible to kill, no doubt.

Maybe they are planning to be prepared for the Triad Nuclear War between the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, and the USA?

Or maybe the Bomber Mafia is plotting a coup against the Fighter Mafia?

Or maybe the B-1/B-2 are not enough toys for the generals?

B1s are getting old and expensive to maintain…

how about just telling the defense builders what we want. They spend their money R&D ing something and testing it the build one, let the AF test them and if it does the job best we buy some if the price and warranty is right. Just like people buy cars and trucks.

"how about just telling the defense builders what we want"

Because then you'll get NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. NO company is going that far out on a limb with their own money on the possibility that they might get a contract to buy. This DEFINITELY is NOT like buying a car….

Yet once upon a time thats exactly how defense acquisitions worked in this country… hell, technically half of the current generation of fighters started out as unsolicited programs.

Funny, the US started footing the bill for development back in WW2.

Half the current generation of fighters? Which, the F22/F35, or the F15/16?

then the companies go out of business and others that want to sell product will take their place.

The big problem is the companies make more money doing R&D then making and selling product

By current I mean the F-15/16/18/A-10.

the F22 and the YF23 was a good old style fly off and the better plane lost.

Ok, so out of the F15/16/18/A10 quartet, which two started out as unsolicited proposals?

The F15 was selected from the F-X request for proposals, but apparently the competition didn't make it to a fly-off.

The F16 came about as a result of the Lightweight Fighter request for proposals.

The USN had been looking for a replacement for A4s, A7s, and F4s, and was ordered to look at the LWF prototypes (YF16/YF17) to find a cheaper aircraft than the F14. The Navy didn't like the narrow landing gear, lack of all-weather capability, and single engine for naval operations. So the Navy requested a re-design of the F17 for better carrier operability.

The A10 as in a competitive fly-off with the A9 (which looks a whole lot like an Su25, oddly enough). Again, that's from a Request for Proposals under the A-X program.

4 RFPs. Not a single one of the US 4thgen fighters were unsolicited designs. The last unsolicited design that was pushed was the Northrup F20, and the only buyer of that was NASA to make the X29.

The last unsolicited US fighter produced was the F-20 Tigershark. They sold exactly 0 because nobody wanted to buy a fighter that had not been ordered by the US/UK/FR no matter how well it filled its role (a quick reaction fighter that could go from cold start to the air in 5 minutes). They made more money from posters of the thing than the plane itself.