GAO: Northrop’s bomber deal OK

Federal auditors have rejected a protest by Boeing and Lockheed Martin and upheld an Air Force decision to award a lucrative new bomber contract to Northrop Grumman Corp.

The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional agency that audits federal programs, said Tuesday that the Air Force’s review of bomber bids was reasonable and it saw no reason to overturn the contract.

A Boeing Co. spokesman said the company will review the GAO decision. It could protest to a federal claims court. Lockheed Martin Corp. declined to comment.

The total cost of the contract is classified. The GAO says there are two parts — an engineering phase with an estimated value of $21.4 billion in 2010 dollars, and options to build the first 21 bombers. The Air Force hasn’t given a cost for producing the first 21 planes but has said that if 100 planes were built, the average cost per plane would be $511 million in 2010 dollars.

Adjusting those figures for inflation, the cost could be nearly $80 billion if the Air Force buys 100 planes, as Pentagon officials discussed in October.

Northrop cheered the GAO’s decision.

“This confirms that the U.S. Air Force conducted an extraordinarily thorough selection process and selected the most capable and affordable solution,” Northrop spokesman Randy Belote said. He called the plane vitally important to national security.

Not surprisingly, the Air Force was happy, too.

The plane, a long-range strike bomber, will replace an aging fleet that includes B-2 and B-52 bombers. Pentagon officials have said it will be designed to penetrate advanced air-defense systems and strike from the United States on any target.

Shares of Falls Church, Va.-based Northrop rose $2.97 to close at $184.22; Chicago-based Boeing gained $3.97, or 3.7 percent, to $112.60; and Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., rose $2.92 to $209.