America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber has made its debut after years of secret development, part of the Pentagon’s response to growing concerns about a future conflict with China.
Key questions:
- The U.S. Air Force plans to field 100 B-21 Raiders capable of deploying nuclear weapons or conventional bombs with or without humans.
- The total cost of the bombers is unknown
- The Raider was exposed under the hangar to avoid being seen by satellite imagery and overhead cameras.
The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber in over 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified.
As evening drew to a close at Air Force Base Plant 42 in Palmdale, the public got its first look at the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony.
It began with three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer, and the B-2 Spirit.
The hangar doors then slowly opened and the B-21 was pulled partially out of the building.
“This is not just another plane,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
“It is the epitome of America’s determination to defend the republic we all love.”
The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s effort to modernize all three parts of the nuclear triad, including silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads. .
China is aiming for 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035, and its advances in hypersonic technology, cyberwarfare and space capabilities are “the most consequential and systemic challenge to US national security and the free and open international system,” the Pentagon said. week in its annual China report.
“We needed a new 21st century bomber that would allow us to take on much more sophisticated threats,” Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary, said in 2015. Ryder’s contract was announced.
While the Raider may resemble the B-2, the similarities are gone, said Kathy Warden, head of Northrop Grumman Corp, which will build the bombers.
“The way it works internally is very advanced compared to the B-2 because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the computing capabilities that we can now put into the software of the B-21,” Ms Warden said.
Other changes include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber more difficult to detect, Austin said.
“This aircraft represents fifty years of advances in low-observability technology,” Austin said.
“Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will have difficulty detecting the B-21 in the sky.
Other advances are likely to include new ways to control electronic emissions, allowing the bomber to fool enemy radars and disguise itself as another object, as well as the use of new propulsion technologies, several defense analysts said.
“It’s incredibly low watchability,” Ms Warden said. – You’ll hear, but you won’t really see.
The unknown cost of the bombers is a concern
Six Raiders are produced.
The Air Force plans to build 100 of these, which can deploy nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew.
The Air Force and Northrop also point to the relatively rapid development of the Raider: the bomber took seven years from contract to debut. Other new fighter and ship programs took decades.
The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously announced that in 2010 each price averaged 550 million. $753 million today.
The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.
“We’re going to be flying this aircraft, testing it and going into production soon. And we’re going to create a bomber force that fits the strategic environment,” Austin said.
The undisclosed cost worries government watchdogs.
“It can be very challenging for us to do a routine analysis of a large program like this,” said Dan Grazier, senior fellow for defense policy at the Government Oversight Project.
“It’s easy to say the B-21 is still on schedule before it actually flies.”
“Because it’s only when one of these programs moves into the actual testing phase that the real problems are discovered.”
That’s when schedules start to slip and costs start to rise, he said.
The B-2 was also intended to be a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, but the Air Force produced only 21 due to cost overruns and the changed security environment following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Due to the heavy maintenance needs of an aging bomber, fewer people are ready to fly on any given day.
B-21 Raider, whose name comes from 1942. Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, will be slightly smaller than the B-2 to increase its range, Warden said.
It will make its first flight only in 2023.
But Ms. Warden said Northrop Grumman used advanced computing to test the bomber’s performance using a digital twin, a virtual replica of the one unveiled Friday.
“The most advanced weapons system ever developed by the US”
Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota will host the bomber’s first training program and squadron, but the bombers are also expected to be deployed to bases in Texas and Missouri.
U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota, led the state’s push for a bomber program.
In a statement, he called it “the most advanced weapons system our country has ever developed to defend itself and its allies.”
Northrop Grumman also incorporated maintenance lessons from the B-2, Ms. Warden said.
in 2001 in October, B-2 pilots set a record of flying for 44 hours straight to drop the first bombs in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.
The B-2 often flies long round-trip missions because there are few hangars around the world that can accommodate its wingspan, which limits where it can land for maintenance.
The hangars must also be air-conditioned, as Spirit’s windows do not open, and the hot climate can cook the cockpit electronics.
But because the Raider is expanded, “it won’t need to be installed in a theater,” Austin said. “If logistical support is not required to put any target at risk.”
The last noticeable difference was in the debut itself.
Although both were publicized in Palmdale, the B-2 in 1988. was rolled out in the open, amid a great uproar from the public.
Given the advances in surveillance satellites and cameras, the Raider was only partially exposed, its sensitive propulsion systems and sensors protected under a hangar and out of sight.
“The magic of Perona,” said Mrs. Warden, “is what you don’t see.”
AP
