Northrop Grumman Corp. has landed a contract to build the Air Force’s next-generation bomber. The Long-Range Strike Bomber program is expected to be a major boon for the Antelope Valley as some assembly on the aircraft will be done at Plant 42 in Palmdale and generate more than 1,000 jobs. The program carries a price tag of about $60 billion for the 80 to 100 planes the Pentagon wants built. The aircraft would go into service in the 2020s. Northrop, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., beat out a competing bid from Chicago’s Boeing Co., which would have had Bethesda, Md.’s Lockheed Martin Corp. as its main subcontractor. Lockheed likely would have done some work on the bomber at its plant in Palmdale. The Air Force is looking to the new bomber as a way to modernize its fleet and replace the Cold War workhorse B-52 Stratofortress and B1-B Lancer, commissioned during the 1980s and built by Boeing. The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber made by Northrop in Palmdale will remain in service. “The Long-Range Strike Bomber will be the backbone of the Air Force’s future strike and deterrence capabilities,” Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said before Air Force Secretary Deborah James made the contract award announcement. Northrop Chief Executive Wes Bush said the Air Force made the right decision for the nation’s security. “Our team has the resources in place to execute this important program, and we’re ready to get to work,” he said in a prepared statement. Loren Thompson, co-founder of the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit national security think tank in Arlington, Va., said that two things stand out to him with the awarding of the contract. The first is that Northrop continues as a first-tier aircraft manufacturer, a position it will hold for years to come. The second is that Southern California remains a center of aerospace technology despite the loss of jobs to other regions. “The most likely place for Northrop to assemble the new bomber will be at Plant 42 in Palmdale,” Thompson said. “It has 1 million square feet of unused space and it has been signaled that is where the final assembly will be done.” Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said he was elated over the news and what it will mean for the city in helping to reduce its 8.3 percent unemployment rate. While not having any specifics on Northrop’s new hires, Ledford said he had heard production jobs could number as high as 1,400. “They are going to be engineering jobs as well and at this point we are going to sit back and listen,” he added. Last year, the state Legislature passed a pair of bills that aided the aerospace firms vying for the Pentagon contract. In one, lawmakers approved $420 million in tax credits over 15 years for Boeing and Lockheed. The second, passed a month later, authorized local governments to offer 15 years of property tax rebates to large manufacturers for creating jobs, and to provide for a corporate income tax credit for 15 years.