Message posted by TAGBOARD on June 11, 2010 at 20:59:08 PST:

Bill Sweetman posted an article called "Ultra Stealth" about the next generation bomber, back in 2008:
http://aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/DTI-Bomber.xml

His article states:

"Data indicated $2 billion in new "restricted programs" contract awards at Integrated Systems, the aircraft division. This almost certainly confirms what DTI first reported earlier this year: Northrop Grumman has a classified, sole-source contract to build a demonstrator for the U.S. Air Force's Next-Generation Bomber (DTI March, p. 30)."

To corroborate his statements, here's a copy of Northrop Grumman's First Quarter 2008 Financial Statement (thanks to Intelgurl from another forum):
http://library.corporate-ir.net/library/11/112/112386/items/289822/0408227_Q12008.pdf

On page 18, Schedule 5, last sentence in the first paragraph under the Contract Awards section:

"In addition, the company was awarded approximately $2.6 billion for restricted programs during this period."

If you review the link to FedSpending.org, you will see the funding breakdown by year in the lower portion of the page. In 2008, a total of $3.1B was awarded to the sum of the contractors under the name "Miscellaneous Items". This amount is greater than the $2.6B Bill Sweetman noticed in his article, which does not disprove the program's link to the Northrop black program efforts.

Additionally, Northrop did undeniably go on a hiring spree, of TS cleared personnel, starting in late 2007 and wrapping up about mid-2008. Someone else who works in this business and is interested in this work can verify this.

I have yet to see why this black program funding of Northrop was not by the US Army, as we see in FedSpending.org.

In Reply to: Re: Northrop's $4B Army Black Program? posted by quellish on June 10, 2010 at 21:15:34 PST:

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