Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force unveiled the B-21 Raider, the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years, on Friday. The Raider will make its first flight in 2023.
According to Northrop Grumman, the Raider, amed in honor of the Doolittle Raid of World War II, will provide the Air Force with long range, high survivability and mission payload flexibility. The B-21, the world’s first sixth generation aircraft, will be able to penetrate the toughest defenses for precision strikes anywhere in the world, it added.
The unveiling of the aircraft takes place in the backdrop of concerns about China’s rapid military modernization. The Asian country is on track to have 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035. Its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare, space capabilities and other areas 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. “The B-21 is more survivable and can take on these much more difficult threats.”
“The Northrop Grumman team develops and delivers technology that advances science, looks into the future and brings it to the here and now,” said Kathy Warden, chair, chief executive officer and president, Northrop Grumman. “The B-21 Raider defines a new era in technology and strengthens America’s role of delivering peace through deterrence.”
Capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear payloads, the B-21 will be one of the most effective aircraft in the sky, with the ability to use a broad mix of stand-off and direct attack munitions. Six B-21 Raiders are in various stages of final assembly and testing at Northrop Grumman’s plant in Palmdale, California.
To meet the evolving threat environment, the B-21 has been designed from day one for rapid upgradeability. Unlike earlier generation aircraft, the B-21 will not undergo block upgrades. New technology, capabilities and weapons will be seamlessly incorporated through agile software upgrades and built-in hardware flexibility.
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