New Delhi: Ever since the World War 2, the United States has dominated the aerial combat scene with its fighters, surveillance planes, and bombers completely outdoing aircraft of every category from other countries.
Now, the country is in the process of developing the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider for the United States Air Force (USAF). It is to be a stealth intercontinental strategic bomber that can deliver conventional and thermonuclear weapons and part of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) programme.
Pitched as a dual-threat stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider is estimated to cost $692 million per aircraft (including support and spares), the programme is backed by a supportive FY2025 NDAA.
It is named “Raider” in honour of the Doolittle Raiders of World War II.
Just how ambitiously advanced is the B-21 can be measured by the fact that it is meant to replace the Rockwell B-1 Lancer and Northrop B-2 Spirit by 2040, and possibly the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress after that.
The USAF began planning for the B-21 in 2011 and awarded the major development contract in 2015, aiming to have it in service “in the mid-2020s”. Due to whatever reasons, by 2021, that date had slipped to 2027.
The B-21 Raider has an open-architecture design for faster upgrades, offering long-range nuclear and conventional strike capabilities combined with enhanced ISR and electronic warfare functions.
The work on the B-21 is advancing with more sophisticated in-air testing, allowing engineers and designers to have additional evaluation data to crunch.
By February 2022, six B-21s were under construction and the first B-21 was moved to a calibration facility in March.
The first B-21 test aircraft was unveiled at Northrop Grumman’s production facilities in Palmdale, California, on 2 December 2022. At the unveiling, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said that the B-21 is designed with modular, open systems architecture to allow easy upgrades and, potentially, the ability to export components to foreign buyers. Warden said that the B-21’s internal operations were “extremely advanced compared to the B-2” and that the B-21 was slightly smaller than the B-2, with a longer range.
According to Northrop Grumman, “The B-21 Raider made significant progress in our flight test campaign this year, continuing to demonstrate the value of our digital technology and the power of the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft.”
Northrop Grumman credits the USAF for its collaboration in advancing the programme as it said, “We extend our gratitude to the United States Air Force for their partnership in bringing the B-21 to life.”
When ready, the American air force is likely to order 100 B-21s while other defense analysts are pitching double the number.
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