McCain to Press for Disclosure of Bomber Bid in Defense Measure
- He calls refusal to release Northrop bid amount `unbelievable'
- Air Force says amount of bid would give clues to secret plane
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Countering a project cloaked in secrecy, the Senate panel responsible for defense policy will direct the Air Force to make public the dollar amount of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s winning bid for a contract to develop and build the new B-21 bomber, its chairman said.
Senator John McCain said he’ll take action when the Armed Services Committee acts next month on the fiscal 2017 defense authorization bill. The director of the secretive Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office that’s managing the program wrote McCain on April 11 to say the number shouldn’t be made public because there’s a “strong correlation between the cost of an air vehicle and its total weight.”