Northrop Grumman noted a $477 million pre-tax loss on the five low-rate initial production lots of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber program, the company announced in its first-quarter earnings call this morning. The loss comes from higher manufacturing costs and increases in the projected costs and quantity of general procurement materials, according to the company. The manufacturing costs come primarily “from a process change made by the company to enable an accelerated production ramp,” a Northrop news release states. “While...
