Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. unveiled new imagery of the secretive B-21 Raider during his keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference on Sept. 12, the first glimpse of the stealthy bomber in months.
B-21 Raider
In another step toward first flight, the initial B-21 Raider has had its first “power-on” test, Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden announced. The company still expects first flight—and a contract for low-rate initial production—by the end of 2023, she said in the company's second quarter ...
A detailed guide to the aircraft, aerial target systems, weapons systems, and satellite systems in USAF and USSF inventory.
In the months following the reveal of Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider in December, several publications affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party or its People’s Liberation Army published articles downplaying the aircraft’s viability, saying the U.S. cannot afford enough of the bombers to make a difference ...
The Air Force’s B-21 Raider will be the world’s most advanced stealthy bomber when it is fielded later in this decade. For Air Force leaders, the challenge will be to fund the B-21 program to rapidly acquire the inventory it needs to meet operational demands.
At least 20 new airplane programs—including a handful that are variants—are in some stage of planning or development. If sustained, this airplane-building campaign will lower the average age of the fleet, increase its size, and enhance its ability to be upgraded rapidly.
Americans are waking up to the fact that our military is not as ready or as capable as it needs to be. Just two years ago, 62 percent of Americans thought U.S. military strength was “about right” and 25 percent thought it was “not strong ...
With the B-21 rollout, the Air Force begins recapitalizing the bomber force.
The many capabilities embodied by the Air Force’s next-generation B-21 Raider extend beyond conventional measures of range, payload, and radar-penetrating stealth—they also include “other things that it can be a part of that could help leverage the agility and the speed that we need to ...
The Air Force has disclosed the organizational emblems on the first B-21 bomber, too faint to make out at the aircraft's Dec. 2 rollout. The heraldry is that of Air Force Materiel Command, Global Strike Command, and the 412th Test Wing.
The unveiling of the new B-21 bomber was staged to keep many of its innovations under wraps, but more than 34 years of technological advances since the B-2’s 1988 rollout were clearly in evidence. Although a senior Northrop Grumman official said the majority of what ...
These are the complete remarks by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Dec. 3, 2022, in Simi Valley, Calif.