Boeing has announced that the company's partnership with rival Lockheed Martin to develop a next-generation bomber has been suspended, with limited likelihood for revival.
"The teaming agreement now is on hold until we understand where the government is headed" with the next-generation bomber program, said Darryl Davis, president of Boeing's secretive Phantom Works division, during a March 1 telephone call with reporters to discuss the company's new Phantom Ray stealth drone.
Such a move would likely lead to competition between Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop Grumman if the Pentagon decides to move ahead with building a new bomber.
The two defense giants had pooled their resources to develop mission studies and a road map and share technologies that both were developing for a next-generation strike plane.
Now, "I'm not sure that the agreement will endure; at this point, the jury is still out as to what we're going to do" with long-range strike, Davis said. "The government, in the day and age we're in, probably wants more competition, not less."
Last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the Next Generation Bomber program on indefinite hold so that the Defense Department could study the need for such an aircraft.
Davis said that he has not heard when or if the long-range bomber program will be restarted, nor who will receive the $200 million requested by the Pentagon in the 2011 budget to continue studies.
Phantom Ray is Boeing's internal effort to maintain the skills necessary to develop a high-end, stealthy UAV with relatively long range that can penetrate advanced air defenses and perform missions ranging from strike and electronic warfare to intelligence collection, Davis said.
"One of our big concerns is that, at some point in time, will we end up forgetting those things we've learned over many development programs and have to relearn them when a new program starts," he said. "From where I sit in Phantom Works today, there are no new start [strike] airplanes in development today."
Technologies developed for the fighter-sized Phantom Ray could easily be scaled up to fit a long-range bomber type aircraft, should the Pentagon decide to move forward with such a program, he said.
The plane, derived from Boeing's X-45 aircraft that was built for the now-canceled Joint Unmanned Combat Air System program, is being designed to have a combat radius of 1,000 nautical miles and be capable of carrying two 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions or other weapons in its internal weapons bays, Davis said.
The jet could also carry synthetic aperture radars or electro optical-infrared cameras in the weapons bays. It would be able to autonomously refuel and execute its missions, he said.
Boeing plans to conduct taxi tests for the airplane this July, followed by a first flight from NASA's Dryden research facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in December.