The First Two B-21 Bombers Are Nearly Complete—and the Air Force Already Wants More of 'Em

Popular Mechanics via Yahoo ^ | June 10th, 2021 | Kyle Mizokami

[Mariner]

The U.S. Air Force's (USAF) bomber program, designed to field a replacement for the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit by the late 2020s, is on track. That's a rarity in the world of military hardware procurement. Still, Congress is calling on the service to accelerate the program; USAF isn't budging.

"Once we get through design and get the first ones delivered, we can adjust production rates and maybe affect them that way, but we have to get through the engineering with solid discipline," Air Force acting acquisition executive Darlene Costello said during a House Armed Services panel on June 8.

One major reason the Air Force doesn't want to speed up the B-21 program is that, while the bombers are almost mechanically complete, the service has not yet solidified the overall design for the larger fleet. The service is concerned that speeding things up could introduce concurrency issues.

[ducttape45]

In my air fueling squadron, mentioning the KC-10 is akin to blasphemy. Therefore, it don’t exist. :-)

[beethovenfan]

Maybe we can get the Chinese to make ‘em for us cheaper.

[Spktyr]

Nope. They can do it. Bearing and (turned sideways) elevation.

[VTenigma]

Are they sporting a rainbow flag yet?

[Bikkuri]

Well, the F-117 should have been the B-117. It has no fighting capabilities, only bombs (and, unlike in the movies where it is supersonic, it is actually slower than a P-51).

[Spktyr]

Lidar speed enforcement has its issues - does weird things at night, cannot be used from a moving vehicle and cannot be used from inside a vehicle with the windows up or through a windshield. Lidar adoption has slowed considerably in areas where these are a concern.

[MrLucky1966]

Article says that the B-52H will fly into the 2040’s and maybe into the 2050’s. By then, the BUFF will be as ancient as the today’s DC-3’s that are still flying.

There is a joke out there where they say when the B-21 is retired to the Boneyard, the crew that flew them there would fly home on a B-52.

[MrLucky1966]

We almost had a B-21 in World War II, the North American XB-21:

[ExGeeEye]

We have had the B-17 (which to my mind is the most aesthetically pleasing of all WW2 large warbirds).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My uncle flew the B-17 in WW II. I never once heard him talk about it.

[Sirius Lee]

What happened to B3 through B20

B3 is already taken.

[cuban leaf]

But did he get the Leslie?

[Sirius Lee]

But did he get the Leslie?

Oh yeah, bombed the heck out of it. Dropped that sucker on top of it, right down the stack.

[TalonDJ]

“I was wondering if we had stealth radar now”

As someone said, nothing is really invisible to modern sensors and computing power. Radar emits so you can ‘see’ it... but there are games that can be played keeping it very low power that make it hard to detect.

[mabarker1]

What happened to B3 through B20?

...while the B-52H will fly on through at least the 2040s, if not into the 2050s.

The B-52I through B-52Z will take America’s Air Force through the year 2150 if Mankind can keep from causing the destruction of Civilization and the Planet .

[Chode]

btween swapping engines, avionics, etc, etc, i wonder just actually how much of the -H’s are left... the main wing spars?

[mabarker1]

Probably quite a bit of the fuselages. And the Lawn Chairs.