It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Soylent Green Is People
B-21, not B-2. They already built the B-2.
What could make this interesting is that Orbital was selected to build the engines for the ICBM replacement program that was just downselected to Northrop and Boeing.
However, he said Boeing and Northrop each are now "competing to be the eventual prime contractor" on the GBSD program. "You went from three competitors to two. You went from what I call broad concepts to now, two competing designers, who will come up with an industrialization concept that will...probably have some testing done to prove certain points along the way."
Boeing has yet to announce all of its partners in the GBSD program, and Northrop has announced some but not all.
Rubel said in a research note that he expects Orbital ATK and Aerjet Rocketdyne to also eventually get some work from the GBSD "as producers of large solid rocket motors. We expect the two companies to split the propulsion work in some fashion."
This is the first of several phases in the contract process for the GBSD program, although the Pentagon isn't expected to settle on a sole contractor for another few years. Production and then deployment aren't expected until the late 2020s.
Northrop Grumman is getting more into the space launch business with it's purchase of Orbital ATK (formerly Orbital Sciences Corporation), the maker of the Cygnus Resupply Vehicle (which conducts resupply missions to the ISS) and the Antares rocket launch vehicle.