Free Republic

A once-empty parking lot at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s top secret aircraft plant in Palmdale, Calif., is now jammed with cars that pour in during the predawn hours. More than a thousand new employees are working for the time being in rows of temporary trailers, a dozen tan tents and a huge assembly hangar at the desert site near the edge of urban Los Angeles County. It is here that Northrop is building the Air Force’s new B-21 bomber, a stealthy bat-winged jet that is being designed to slip behind any adversary’s air defense system and deliver devastating airstrikes for decades...

Northrop won the bomber contract in 2015... activity is ramping up sharply under an Air Force budget that has reached $2 billion for this fiscal year. ... The project marks a sharp turnaround in the fortunes of the Southern California aerospace industry, which has been atrophying since the end of the Cold War. It was widely assumed that the region would never again be home to a large aircraft manufacturing program and now it has one of the largest in modern history. The program is breathing new life into an industry that once defined the Southern California economy. ... A...

Detailed information on the B-21 Raider is still scarce to say the least, but for over a year and a half we have had a rendering supposedly depicting the multi-role strategic stealth platform's basic shape and features. Recently, other simple planform renderings have trickled out from the marketing department of the stealth bomber's manufacturer, Northrop Grumman. Although there can be no doubt that the aircraft will feature a whole slew of cutting edge technologies, will be constructed using the latest manufacturing techniques, and will be covered in the most advanced radar absorbent coatings, the general configuration of the aircraft doesn't...

Amanda MaciasSeptember 27, 2016  An artist rendering shows the first image of a new Northrop Grumman Corp long-range B-21 bomber in this image released on February 26, 2016. WASHINGTON, D.C. — Little is known about America's newest stealth bomber, the B-21, which will replace the Air Force's aging B-52 and B-1Bs. Shrouded in secrecy, here's all we know (so far) about the B-21: •It will be developed by Northrop Grumman, the same manufacturer of the iconic B-2 Spirit •Northrop Grumman won the contract in October •The Air Force is slated to buy 100 of these new bombers •The program...

<p>Air Force Unveils Name of Future Stealth Bomber as B-21 'Raider'.</p> <p>AFA 2016 B-21 Naming Ceremony Raider was selected as the name of the Long Range Strike-Bomber, or LRS-B, by leaders after the service launched a survey of service members.</p>