According to recent service estimates, the next-generation B-21 stealth bomber program would cost taxpayers at least $203 billion to develop, purchase, and operate 100 aircraft over the next 30 years.

The figure is the most up-to-date estimate for Northrop Grumman Corporation's highly classified program, which it won in 2015. It's also an attempt by the Air Force to follow through on a promise to help lawmakers avoid 'sticker shock' by disclosing more cost data as the stealth aircraft progresses through development.

According to Bloomberg News, the total cost, in fiscal year 2019 dollars, comprises $25.1 billion for development, $64 billion for production, and $114 billion for maintaining and operating a fleet of 100 bombers over a 30-year period.

These costs are part of a massive "bow wave" of spending facing the US military, and consequently, US taxpayers, as the Pentagon seeks to upgrade the country's land-sea-air nuclear triad. Weapons systems such as new Ford-class aircraft carriers, Columbia-class submarines, and nearly 2,500 F-35 fighter jets for the Air Force, Navy, and Marines are being financed by the US following that aim.

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The service had previously disclosed B-21 research and manufacturing expenses, but not the program's 30-year operations and support expenditures, which typically account for up to 70% of a program's total life-cycle cost.

The bomber program is still in the engineering and production development stage, according to Air Force acting acquisition chief Darlene Costello, adding that the program "remains on track to the government acquisition program baseline for cost, schedule, and performance."

"You need to take your time and effort during the design phase to try to design for lower sustainment cost," Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in an interview last week. Kendall insisted on the need to pay attention to costs to get "a better product out."

Kendall stated in September that five B-21 bombers were in the works. “It’s not a cheap airplane. It’s an important capability that we need and we will budget what we need to sustain the fleet," the Air Force Secretary said.

Because of a past consulting arrangement with Northrop Grumman, Kendall is precluded from having major engagement in the program even as Air Force secretary.

According to the service, the B-21's average procurement price per unit, the most typical metric of how much it costs to manufacture a plane, is within the $550 million per unit objective set in fiscal 2010. The equivalent in 2019 dollars, adjusted for inflation, is nearly $639 million.