On the Air, House, and Cyber Convention in Washington, DC, the US Air Power and prime contractor Northrop Grumman have launched the primary video of its B-21 Raider nuclear bomber in flight, together with an replace on the B-21 program.
On September 18, 2024, a sequence of updates on the B-21 have been supplied by a panel consisting of Normal Thomas Bussiere, Air Power World Strike Command commander; Main Normal Jason Armagost, Eighth Air Power and Joint-World Strike Operations Heart commander; William Bailey, Division of the Air Power Fast Capabilities Workplace director; and Thomas Jones, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Programs sector president.
Together with the video exhibiting the bomber going by a sequence of take off and touchdown aerial maneuvers, the updates included the B-21 prototype G-1 finishing static assessments to find out the plane’s structural integrity and the way properly the precise car compares to the digital fashions getting used to design and construct it.
Protection One B-21 Flight
To date, three prototypes in numerous configurations have been delivered by Northrop Grumman to the Air Power. What’s uncommon about these is that as an alternative of being know-how demonstrators, B-21 prototypes are as shut as attainable to the manufacturing fashions. In accordance with the corporate, that is one purpose the testing program has made a lot progress in solely 12 months, together with flying as a lot as two take a look at flights per week and in depth fatigue testing.
The B-21 is meant to incrementally change the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers as extra of the brand new plane are constructed and the older ones are retired. Finally, the B-21 fleet will change even the venerable B-52 Hustler when the final are retired someday within the 2050s. This can depart the B-21 as America’s solely heavy typical bomber and can comprise the airborne leg of the US nuclear deterrent triad pressure, which additionally contains land-based ICBMs and submarine-based SLBMs.
Below present plans, 100 of the plane shall be constructed, with the primary slated to be delivered to Ellsworth Air Power Base, South Dakota by 2027, adopted by Whiteman Air Power Base, Missouri, and Dyess Air Power Base, Texas.
US Air Power
“We’re the free world’s solely bomber pressure,” stated Bussiere. “We’re in all probability not going to see a decreased demand sign from our regional combatant instructions on bomber job forces. That demand sign, in my view, is barely going to go up within the years forward. As we transition from legacy to new, the B-21 fleet will present nice consolation to our allies and may present nice pause to any potential adversary.
“No person on the planet can do what we’re doing proper now. No person on the planet can construct an beautiful, technologically-advanced platform just like the B-21, and fairly frankly, no person on the planet can maintain in danger what we are able to maintain in danger at a time and place of our selecting.”
Supply: US Air Power
