Northrup Grumman already building Next-Gen Bomber?

Recent financial statements from defense contractor Northrop Grumman may indicate that the company is building the Air Force's Next Generation Bomber (NGB). First Quarter statements reveal nearly $2.6 billion (yes billion with a B) that was awarded to them for "restricted programs" according to Aviation Week. That's a nice way of putting it. This has led to many analysts in the industry to suspect the money was awarded by the Air Force for Northrop Grumman to build the prototype NGB as a black project. While the Air Force "officially" has nothing in their budget for the program, they keep on saying the NGB will enter service in 2018. The other team vying for NGB (Boeing/Lockheed Martin) claims they haven't received any government funding.

The other interesting anomaly pointing to a Northrop Grumman bomber is that after the J-UCAS program was terminated last year, the Pentagon decided to split the funds between a Navy program (which Northrop Grumman won) and a classified Air Force project. Hmmmm.

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