Under an Air Force initiative for the service’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber by Northrop Grumman, the service would create a government-owned technical data library through reverse engineering and data rights acquisition.
This news comes from a Thursday business notice from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center bomber directorate’s contracting office at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
The B-2 stealth bomber, particularly the Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, is compatible with the B61-12, according to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s 2025 Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan.
“The government requires a prime contractor to serve as a strategic integrator for the potential
Supply Chain Regeneration effort,” according to the notice. “The contractor shall have the capability to provide program management, engineering services, and supply chain management to address parts obsolescence and diversify the industrial base for the B-2 fleet.”
The center at Tinker Air Force Base is conducting market research to identify a contractor able to serve “as a neutral,
program-controlled integrator to regenerate and diversify the B-2 Spirit bomber supply chain,
addressing critical risks associated with parts obsolescence and a diminishing industrial base,” the notice said.
“This acquisition seeks to establish a neutral, program-controlled prime integrator to remedy these deficiencies,” said the notice, adding that a government owned technical data library for the B-2 will remove “barriers to future competition” and create “a sustainable, multi-vendor industrial base for the remainder of the weapon system’s life.”
While critics have called the B-2s gold-plated airshow mainstays, the Pentagon said it used the aircraft to strike Iranian nuclear sites last June and to hit underground missile sites during Operation Epic Fury which began on Feb. 28.