WASHINGTON — Boeing on Friday announced it is protesting a massive Air Force contract, worth up to $60 billion, to build the Long Range Strike Bomber.
Boeing, which had teamed with Lockheed Martin, lost out to Northrop Grumman. The selection process was “fundamentally flawed,” Boeing said in a statement.
The contract to build the bomber, a new generation of aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons and designed to reach deep into enemy territory, is likely to be one of the Pentagon’s most significant awards over the next decade. In announcing the contract late last month, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the program represents a “technological leap” that will allow the United States to “remain dominant.”
The companies were competing to build 100 of the planes, which would enter service in the 2020s.
