GOODBYE OL’ BUFF — A NEW AMERICAN LONG RANGE STRIKE BOMBER WILL SOON BE A REALITY:

On Tuesday, the Pentagon announced that Northrop Grumman will be getting the contract for the Long Range Strike Bomber, the planned replacement for the B-52 Stratofortress. The contract will cover the R&D Funding (expected to be $21.4 billion, per an Air Force release) as well as the first 21 planes of a planned production run of 100 planes.

Hopefully by 2017 they’ll be joined by an even more crucial military upgrade — a Commander-in-Chief who doesn’t view the Middle East like it’s a game of Calvinball. Or as Iowahawk tweets, “The most exciting thing about going into war in Syria is solving the mystery of what side we’re on.”