Boeing and Lockheed Martin team-up for US Air Force bomber program

The Boeing Company and Lockheed Martin Corporation are teaming together to compete for the United States Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber program, with Boeing acting as the prime contractor and Lockheed Martin as the primary team-mate.

To this critical mission, the team brings together nearly two centuries of combined experience designing, developing and testing aircraft for defense customers around the world. The companies also bring expertise in integrating proven technologies, and their skilled workforces and infrastructure and scale, to meet the U.S. Air Force’s cost and schedule requirements.

President and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing Defense, Space & Security said: 

“Boeing and Lockheed Martin are bringing together the best of the two enterprises, and the rest of industry, in support of the Long-Range Strike Bomber program, and we are honored to support our U.S. Air Force customer and this important national priority. Stable planning, along with efficient and affordable development and production approaches, enables our team to reduce development risk by leveraging mature technologies and integrating existing systems.”

Separately the companies are developing two of the Air Force’s top priorities, the KC-46 tanker and F-35 Lightning II, respectively, and they partnered on the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. Each has delivered key Air Force capabilities including the B-1B bomber, F-15E strike fighter, and F-117 and F-16 fighters.

Orlando Carvalho, Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics said:

“Building on decades of manned and unmanned weapon systems experience, we’re proud to bring our collection of technologies, capabilities and resources to affordably design, develop, produce and sustain the bomber program. We’re confident that our team will meet the well-defined system requirements and deliver a world-class next generation Long-Range Strike Bomber to the U.S. Air Force within the budget and timeframe required.”