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The B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber Looks Like an ‘Expensive’ Success
National Security Journal ^ | 9/25/2024 | Brent M. Eastwood

Posted on 09/25/2024 12:29:12 PM PDT by whyilovetexas111

The Air Force and Northrop are testing different aspects of the B-21 while it’s in-air and are “expanding the operating envelope.” There is the main testing airplane, and two others are undergoing evaluations on the ground.

The Air Force eventually want to acquire at least 100 B-21 Raiders. The stealth bomber is a dual-threat airplane that can deliver a nuclear payload or conventional munitions. Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota will have the first squadron.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...


TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: b21; china; defense; military; usairforce
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I say it again: can we afford these things anymore? The nation is $35 trillion in debt.
1 posted on 09/25/2024 12:29:12 PM PDT by whyilovetexas111
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To: whyilovetexas111

2 posted on 09/25/2024 12:31:52 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: whyilovetexas111

3 posted on 09/25/2024 12:32:35 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: whyilovetexas111

During WW2 the Germans spent their resources on producing relatively few highly sophisticated tanks, the Tiger being the most famous. The Soviets spent their resources on producing many basic tanks, the T-34 being the most famous.

And we all know who won that little dust-up.

The lesson there is not conclusive. Yet there is a lesson there.


4 posted on 09/25/2024 12:37:31 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: Leaning Right
“If you think about how far ahead we are, that’s great,” said Tom Jones, president of Northrop’s aeronautics sector.

As Tom Jones also said: Its Not Unusual...for these things to cost triple estimated costs...you know it happens all the time.

5 posted on 09/25/2024 12:46:46 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: whyilovetexas111

We can sell the old B-2’s to help pay for them.


6 posted on 09/25/2024 12:48:01 PM PDT by Mr. Blond
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To: whyilovetexas111
We can afford it if we just cut crap like:
7 posted on 09/25/2024 12:54:22 PM PDT by SuperLuminal ( Where is Samuel Adams when we so desperately need him)
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To: whyilovetexas111

I don’t see where there is room to store the ordnance.


8 posted on 09/25/2024 12:55:47 PM PDT by Cautious Optimism
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To: Leaning Right
The lesson there is not conclusive. Yet there is a lesson there.

Lots of innovations that have reshaped how we conduct warfare since WW2. Quantity can be a quality of its own, but things like precision munitions, combined arms and highly mobile forces, and various low observable technology give many advantages. F117's in Panama and the Gulf War, Abrams shoot while on the move capability, smart munitions, and reductions in the number of bombs and sorties necessary to achieve regime changing results in Iraqi Freedom, C4I and total battle space awareness. Several examples in the last 40 years now that numbers by themselves arent everything.

9 posted on 09/25/2024 12:57:36 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic... )
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To: whyilovetexas111

“There’s a pause on the program and the Air Force doesn’t know how much it is going to cost or how it will be designed.”

Hey, just hire some more DEI Engineers to design it and DEI assemblers and I’m sire it will get off the ground ... at lest fora few feet and cost $1 trillion apiece.


10 posted on 09/25/2024 1:04:29 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: Leaning Right

And how did our Abrams and Bradley’s fare against the far more numerous Iraqi T-72s and BMPs? F-15s and F-16s against MiGs?

A technological advantage can be a great one, if you can maintain them.


11 posted on 09/25/2024 1:11:40 PM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: whyilovetexas111

That’s right. At the rate we’re going, we won’t have much of a Defense Dept. in a few years and these planes will be mothballed or sold to the highest bidder. Besides, the Woke pilots wouldn’t be competent enough to fly them.


12 posted on 09/25/2024 1:18:54 PM PDT by laplata (They want each crisis to take the greatest toll possible.)
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To: SJSAMPLE

As I previously noted, the WW2 lesson of quantity beats quality is not conclusive. Your counterexamples are good ones.

My point is that America immediately jumps on technology bandwagon without considering how that same pot of money could buy many more less-sophisticated toys.

Drones, maybe?


13 posted on 09/25/2024 1:21:29 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: whyilovetexas111

“I say it again: can we afford these things anymore? The nation is $35 trillion in debt.”

Not trying to hijack a thread, but I have been looking at Flightradar24 for a while. Recently I bungled around and found how to only see government aircraft, which is all I’m interested in. The number U.S. military aircraft flying around the U.S. and the world is incredible. The money being spent to must be mind boggling. Even looking in Europe, and around Asia, usually a large percentage of the aircraft are U.S. military.


14 posted on 09/25/2024 1:44:14 PM PDT by suthener ( )
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To: Red Badger

Cool, but they should make it look more like a baby in a uterus about to be aborted. That’s American ingenuity right there.


15 posted on 09/25/2024 2:20:00 PM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: Leaning Right

That was before nuclear weapons and air defense missiles

And the M1 tank has proven very effective properly used


16 posted on 09/25/2024 2:54:22 PM PDT by rdcbn1
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To: whyilovetexas111

Would be smarter to buy longer range drones capable of penetrating enemy air defenses.


17 posted on 09/25/2024 3:12:56 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind.)
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To: whyilovetexas111

When will it be put up for public sale?


18 posted on 09/25/2024 3:40:24 PM PDT by californian by choice (Who are those who believe in science?)
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To: whyilovetexas111

They want 100....

We’ll be lucky if they manage to get a single squadron. Then the MIC will be off selling the latest new toy we absolutely must have as a nation to maintain our freedom and national security...

Wallowing in rampant inflation and marxist public policy.


19 posted on 09/25/2024 4:18:12 PM PDT by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: Leaning Right

The lesson is...Don’t get stuck in Russian mud.


20 posted on 09/25/2024 5:19:04 PM PDT by 1FreeAmerican
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