Free Republic

The B-21 Raider’s more compact airframe compared to the B-2 Spirit is not a limitation but a deliberate evolution in strategic bomber design. Decades of technological progress allow the B-21 to achieve a superior level of all-aspect stealth with a smaller and more efficient profile.

The US Air Force is accelerating its B-21 Raider program, with at least two test aircraft expected to be flying by 2026 and capable of being rapidly configured for combat missions if required. This potential for early deployment comes as the US weighs the possibility of future strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

At this moment, nearly every major Department of Defense program seems to be struggling. Technological bottlenecks, industrial capacity problems, workforce issues, and general bureaucratic confusion have produced delivery delays and cost overruns, even as the entire defense industrial base faces the challenge of competing with Russia and China. The major exception to these problems appears, surprisingly enough, to be the B-21 Raider. The purpose of the B-21 program was to produce a new generation of strategic bombers to replace the B-1B Lancer and the B-2 Spirit. The subsonic B-21 is designed to use stealth to penetrate enemy air defenses and...

During Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown's speech at this year's Air & Space Forces Association's mega conference outside of Washington, D.C., the soon-to-be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs dropped two new images of the B-21 Raider. While the stealth bomber was rolled out in December of last year, it remains cloaked in secrecy. Brown, the top Air Force uniformed officer, didn't specifically reference the images in his presentation. Up until today, only one angle of the full aircraft has been seen by the public — head-on — and in a very controlled environment at the bomber's unveiling....

“Taken together – 120 combat-coded bombers, 20 trainers, and 24 planes for backup and attrition planning purposes – the minimum buy would be 164 aircraft." Why 100 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider Stealth Bombers Might Not Be Enough Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider stealth bomber is rapidly approaching its critical design review (CDR), when a Pentagon review team will determine if the new aircraft is meeting the technical requirements set forth in its requirements documents. If the design passes its CDR, the B-21 team will be cleared to build, integrate and test the aircraft before its next hurdle: the production readiness review....