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Back-to-Back World War Champs debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider
Posted on 12/2/22 at 9:36 pm
Posted on 12/2/22 at 9:36 pm
quote:
PALMDALE , Calif. (AP) — America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising concerns over a future conflict with China.
The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified.
As evening fell over the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, the public got its first glimpse of the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony. It started with a flyover of the three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit. Then the hangar doors slowly opened and the B-21 was towed partially out of the building.
“This isn’t just another airplane,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. “It’s the embodiment of America’s determination to defend the republic that we all love.”
The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China’s rapid military modernization.
China is on track to have 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035, and its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare and space capabilities present “the most consequential and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system,” the Pentagon said this week in its annual China report.
”We needed a new bomber for the 21st Century that would allow us to take on much more complicated threats, like the threats that we fear we would one day face from China, Russia, ” said Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary when the Raider contract was announced in 2015.
While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.
“The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the B-2, because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,” Warden said.
Other changes include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber harder to detect, Austin said.
“Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” Austin said. “Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.”
Other advances likely include new ways to control electronic emissions, so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as another object, and use of new propulsion technologies, several defense analysts said.
“It is incredibly low observability,” Warden said. “You’ll hear it, but you really won’t see it.”
Six Raiders are in production. The Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew. Both the Air Force and Northrop also point to the Raider’s relatively quick development: The bomber went from contract award to debut in seven years. Other new fighter and ship programs have taken decades.
The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously put the price at an average cost of $550 million each in 2010 dollars — roughly $753 million today — but it’s unclear how much is actually being spent. The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.
LINK
This post was edited on 12/2/22 at 9:38 pm
Posted on 12/2/22 at 9:38 pm to Jim Rockford
Blame the search function. I tried and it timed out over and over.
Posted on 12/2/22 at 9:39 pm to stout
do you have any pictures of it with the cloaking device active? would like to "see" it in stealth mode.
Posted on 12/2/22 at 9:42 pm to stout
quote:
While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.
I wish I knew what Kathy knows about that aircraft.
Posted on 12/2/22 at 9:54 pm to stout
Glad to see we’re taking design lessons from the UFOs
Posted on 12/2/22 at 10:03 pm to J Murdah
Also operates with no crew on board
Posted on 12/2/22 at 10:05 pm to stout
quote:
PALMDALE
Come back to meeee
Posted on 12/2/22 at 10:14 pm to stout
Glad to see we are announcing to the world the new planes we are building and how many we have on order.
Great job at sharing the information.
Great job at sharing the information.
Posted on 12/3/22 at 1:09 am to stout
defend the republic that we all love.”
—-all? He hasn’t kept up with current events
—-all? He hasn’t kept up with current events
Posted on 12/3/22 at 1:33 am to J Murdah
quote:
do you have any pictures of it with the cloaking device active? would like to "see" it in stealth mode.
![](https://i.postimg.cc/FRpBdLtg/empty-runway-sunny-day-international-airport-173189501.jpg)
Posted on 12/3/22 at 5:46 am to stout
Posted on 12/3/22 at 8:14 am to stout
That thing looks flat as a flitter.
Posted on 12/3/22 at 8:20 am to TideSaint
quote:
Glad to see we are announcing to the world the new planes we are building and how many we have on order.
This is because we are already working on newer ones. Let other countries think about the current while we are secretly working on the future.
Posted on 12/3/22 at 8:27 am to stout
More importantly, will the Air Force make sure the first pilots of it aren't white males?
Posted on 12/3/22 at 8:28 am to TideSaint
quote:
Glad to see we are announcing to the world the new planes we are building and how many we have on order.
Great job at sharing the information.
It's huge, you can't exactly hide it.
Posted on 12/3/22 at 8:34 am to TideSaint
quote:
Glad to see we are announcing to the world the new planes we are building and how many we have on order. Great job at sharing the information.
It’s a billion dollar stealth bomber that’s going to be spending very little of its lifespan stealthily bombing our enemies. This announcement is a massive projection of force. Or as TD likes to say, a public proclamation of “frick around and find out”.
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