A solemn ceremony of rolling out the newest B-21 Raider strategic bomber was held at Northrop Grumman's "Plant 42" in Palmdale, California. The inconspicuous aircraft should in the near future partially replace the aging Rockwell B-1 Lancer and Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit fleet, and even take on a number of tasks that are performed by the very "oldies" Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.
Previously, only drawings and computer graphics were shown to the general public, it was not known how the "Raider" actually looks. However, there was no surprise — the real plane practically does not differ from the "cartoons": a flying wing with a silhouette characteristic of inconspicuous bombers. Visually, the B-21 is similar to the younger brother of the B-2, which is quite expected, given the continuity of development. The only surprise is the color: it is gray, and not practically black, like all the previous "invisible" ones.
We must pay tribute to the marketing of the novelty — Northrop Grumman calls his brainchild the world's first sixth-generation strategic bomber. And it's not just the notorious "stels". This status is given to the aircraft by deep integration into existing and promising distributed military information systems. In particular, the ability to communicate with other aircraft for targeting, the exchange of arbitrary data sets and situational awareness.
A fragment of the presentation of the B-21 Raider at the Northrop Grumman site in Palmdale. The plane appears in the second minute of the video, before that the audience is warmed up with dramatic music / © Military TV, YouTube In addition, the machine should easily adapt to almost any air-based weapons systems. This refers to missiles and bombs, both already in use and just being developed.
In addition, according to [...] Reuters, the B-21 Raider should become cheaper than its predecessor, the B-2. In the design of the new bomber, radio-absorbing coatings are used, which are more resistant to environmental influences, and also require less effort to maintain integrity and safety. This should radically reduce the cost of a flight hour — perhaps the main problem in the operation of inconspicuous aircraft.
©USAF, Twitter At the moment, there are six prototypes at different stages of production, and Northrop Grumman plans to build from one hundred to one and a half hundred cars in total.
Depending on the source, the number of sixth-generation bombers ordered by the US Air Force differs. One thing is for sure — the B-21 should become much more massive than the B-2. Recall that only 21 of them were built, of which one was lost in 2008.
Adjusted for inflation, as of the end of 2022, one "Raider" is estimated at $ 750 million. This is half the price for the B-2 Spirit. The savings are substantial, especially if Northrop Grumman manages to keep its promise to reduce the cost of maintenance.
The development of the machine began in 2014 and the terms of reference for the next generation of "strategists" differed from those for previous missile carriers and bombers. Among other things, the B-21 must perform reconnaissance and command functions without additional conversion. Initially, it was planned to assign an optional interceptor task to him, but as far as can be judged, this idea was abandoned. The first flight is scheduled for 2023, the start of serial production and commissioning are expected closer to 2026-2028.
