12 February 2016, 23:55 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Defense contractors Boeing and Lockheed Martin have dropped their lawsuit to prevent the US Air Force awarding its $55 billion Long Range Strike-Bomber contract to their rival Northrop Grumman, Boeing said in a news release on Friday.
"[The] Lockheed Martin team has decided not to pursue further challenges to that award, either through the GAO [Government Accountability Office] or in federal court," the release stated.
The two giant aerospace corporations applied to the GAO claiming their own joint bid to build the bomber to ensure the next generation of US strategic air power projection had been rejected on false grounds.
The GAO investigation upheld the original US Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman.
The new bombers are expected to cost more than $500 million each. The US Air Force plans to buy up to 100 of the new aircraft, according to published reports.
