Northrop Grumman posted a drop in profits from the first quarter, blaming higher manufacturing costs for its stealthy bombardier Raider B-21.
Sales totaled $ 9.5 billion during the quarter, down 7% compared to last year, the company said. Reuters said the figure was lower than analysts’ average expectations of around $ 9.92 billion.
The company said it had recorded a loss before 477 million dollars on its B-21 programs, and that investments to stimulate future B-21 production and higher material costs than expected were to blame.
At a conference call, Kathy Warden, president of Northrop Grumman, said that the decline was “largely linked to higher manufacturing costs” for the B-21, according to the war zone.
She said that “resulting mainly from a change of process that we have made to allow a higher production rate, as well as increases in the cost of planned materials”.
She said Northrop Grumman had “underestimated the amount of consumption of the two materials as well as the increase in prices we see”.
The B-21 is the first new stealth bomber to be developed for the US Air Force in 30 years and has taken its inaugural flight in November 2023.
Business Insider said last year that the plane should train the backbone of the American bomber fleet and that its cutting -edge furtive capacities are designed to escape sophisticated air defense systems.
An initial low rate production contract – a contract for the manufacture of a small batch of B -21 for tests – was signed in January 2024.
General Anthony J Cotton, head of the American strategic command, said last month that he wanted to see the Air Force increase the number of B-21 which he planned to deploy from 100 to around 145.
He said the low initial plane production rate has been set “when the geopolitical environment was a little different from what we face today.”
The B-21 should come into service by the end of the decade.
During the conference call, Warden said that the company was taking a financial hit now in order to be able to develop the production of the plane in the future.
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