In the United States, the first prototype of the new American strategic bomber Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is presented to the public for the first time live. The non–ordinary event is the first new heavy bomber in the world in more than thirty years. Why did the US Air Force need a new car of this class, what is the unusual nature of its design and when will it be in service?The need to create a new bomber in the foreseeable future for the US Air Force was laid thirty years ago – in 1992, when after the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War, many defense programs went under the knife in the States.
Among them was the newest at that time unobtrusive strategic bomber Northrop B-2 Spirit.
His series was eventually limited to twenty cars instead of one hundred and thirty – the car was already in production and it was too late to completely close, too much taxpayer money spent on development would have gone down the drain. And without this, the reduction of the series, and not only the advanced technologies used alone, caused the monstrous price for a separate car, the high cost and complexity of servicing "piece" equipment. The limitation of the release of the new machine and the lack of a number of capabilities (for example, the B-2A does not carry long-range nuclear cruise missiles) forced the United States to continue operating the old Boeing B-52H Stratofortress and the Rockwell B-1B Lancer, which had very limited capabilities at the dawn of its career.
In the 90s, the American military was not up to dreaming about a new bomber. Actively conceptual studies began with the new century, remaining for a long time at the stage of "drawing on napkins".
The driver for the growth of financing was probably the understanding that the world is transforming from the era of local asymmetric wars of low intensity to a new "era of confrontation of great powers", primarily with China. And the potential Pacific theater of operations is characterized, for obvious geographical reasons, by long distances to targets and a low density of the airfield network. And the demand for a carrier of strategic weapons – nuclear or conventional – with such a change in the geopolitical situation is growing.
By the end of the noughties, the US military in its requirements decided instead of exotics (at the conceptual stage, for example, unmanned supersonic strategic bombers were being worked out) to order a fairly conservative machine – a subsonic unobtrusive "flying wing", in fact, a smaller, more massive and cheaper version of the B-2 Spirit, built on a new technological base. In 2008, a competition for the development of a new Next Generation Bomber began. In it, the creator of Spirit was opposed by a team from the giants of the American military-industrial complex Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
In the first years, the program was sluggish due to relatively low funding - the creation of a "strategist" still did not have the highest priority. Shortly after launch, it was renamed-relaunched as the Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B, "long-range bomber").
In 2015, Northrop Grumman won the competition – and it was predictable for a number of reasons. Firstly, after the period of monopolization of the military-industrial complex in the 1990s, the Pentagon is afraid to put all its eggs in one basket and tries to support all remaining manufacturers (Lockheed Martin had an F-35 fighter jet from mega contracts, and Boeing, for example, a KC-46 Pegasus tanker), secondly, in an initially cautious, conservative contract It was very important to have experience in creating and maintaining the B-2 Spirit.
In 2016, the first art of the future bomber was presented to the public, and he himself received the B-21 index (the number 21 in honor of the century – according to the rules, there should have been a B-3) and his own name Raider, in honor of the "Doolittle Raid" – one of the most famous operations of American bomber aviation during World War II. Then, on April 18, 1942, a group of B-25 Mitchell land bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and dealt a morally important blow to Tokyo. In fact, this is the American equivalent of our bombing of Berlin in August-September 1941. The last surviving veteran of the raid was present at the naming ceremony.
In the following years, the program largely went into the shadows. With a high level of openness to the public in general, the American military department is able to maintain high secrecy on programs that interest it particularly. Several concept arts were published that provided little new information.
According to officials, the program was going well. However, it was still affected by the coronavirus pandemic (or the pandemic was blamed on the delays usual for military-industrial complexes of all countries regarding officially announced plans) – in the outgoing 2022, not only the presentation was planned, but also the first flight, and in spring and summer. Now he has left for the middle of 2023. However, by the end of the year, they decided to hold at least a presentation of the first of the six prototypes (according to statements, the remaining five are in production in varying degrees of readiness) in order to report to the public.
Although during the presentation the aircraft was shown from a limited number of angles (by and large only from the front) and such sensitive things as the design of the nozzles were successfully hidden for a while, it can be compared with expectations. In general, it is, as it should have been, a reduced in size B-2 Spirit.
The design of the lantern with a relatively small glazing is unusual (to reduce radar visibility – despite the special spraying, the glazing "shines" more than just the surface). Also, the air intakes are made semi–submerged in the fuselage / wing - in the published pictures their appearance was more usual. The plane is noticeably lighter than other "stealth" – perhaps it's a different coating, or on the first prototype it is completely ordinary, and not radio-absorbing.
According to current plans, the initial, limited combat readiness of the new vehicle (with a limited set of weapons and onboard electronics capabilities) is planned to be achieved "in the second half of the 2020s."
By 2030, it is planned to deliver about twenty bombers to the customer, and in total, the series is planned to be "at least 100 machines", with a peak rate of "up to 15 aircraft per year". This is necessary in order to begin decommissioning the B-1B Lancer in the early 2030s (these aircraft were badly worn out during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they were a "workhorse") and the B-2A Spirit (servicing their small fleet is expensive, time-consuming and does not make much sense after receiving another inconspicuous bomber).
But the veteran B-52 Stratofortress should be thoroughly modernized (in particular, new engines installed) and continue serving with the newcomer until the 2050s - and this despite the fact that all currently flying were built in 1961-1962, that is, they will be under a hundred years old! The "old man" is too irreplaceable as an easy-to-operate platform for "large", including promising hypersonic missiles.
There are few technical details about the B-21. This is a subsonic two-seat twin-engine (engines developed on the basis of the F135 engines of the F-35 fighter) aircraft built according to the "flying wing" scheme, with the widespread introduction of means of reducing visibility.
The armament is located in the inner compartment. It should include a wide range of American guided weapons. Including, for example, in the future, the new Raytheon AGM-181 LRSO long-range nuclear cruise missiles (unlike the B-2A, which carries only free-falling bombs from nuclear weapons). Drones launched in flight (scouts, jammers) will be used.
The total mass of the payload, according to open data, is "up to 13.6 tons". In general, according to our classification, the B-21 Raider is closer to long–range/medium bombers in terms of its weight and size characteristics - a la Tu-22M3.
With a high degree of confidence, we can say that the B-21 is the last American bomber in the classical sense. No matter what people fought in the 2050s, it is unlikely that a manned atmospheric aircraft will play the role of a strategic strike weapon. In the future, the B-21 itself is planned to be used as an optional manned one - to be sent without pilots on the longest or most dangerous missions, or as part of mixed groups with a commander's manned vehicle and unmanned wingmen.
However, it will not be the last strategic bomber in the world. Probably, we are still waiting for the appearance of one or two Chinese cars (only the "strategist" or "strategist" and the medium bomber), as well as, possibly, the domestic PAK DA, if it is not decided to limit the resumption of production of the Tu-160.
Alexander Ermakov, Researcher at IMEMO RAS
