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https://www.npr.org/2022/12/02/1140365337/new-stealth-bomber-b21-raider-pentagon-air-force

Pentagon debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider
December 2, 20222:27 PM ET
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

This artist rending provided by the U.S. Air Force shows a U.S. Air
Force graphic of the Long Range Strike Bomber, designated the B-21.
U.S. Air Force via AP

WASHINGTON — America's newest nuclear stealth bomber is making its
public debut after years of secret development and as part of the
Pentagon's answer to rising concerns over a future conflict with China.

The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than
30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified. Ahead of its
unveiling Friday at an Air Force facility in Palmdale, California, only
artists' renderings of the warplane have been released. Those few images
reveal that the Raider resembles the black nuclear stealth bomber it
will eventually replace, the B-2 Spirit.

The bomber is part of the Pentagon's efforts to modernize all three legs
of its nuclear triad, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic
missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the
counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China's rapid
military modernization.

China is on track to have 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035, and 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.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other invited guests will be on hand
Friday to witness the bomber's public unveiling.

"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."

While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the
similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop
Grumman Corp., which is building the Raider.

"The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the
B-2, because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the
computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,"
Warden said.

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Other changes likely include advanced materials used in coatings to make
the bomber harder to detect, new ways to control electronic emissions,
so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as
another object, and use of new propulsion technologies, several defense
analysts said.

In a fact sheet, Northrop Grumman, based in Falls Church, Virginia, said
it is using "new manufacturing techniques and materials to ensure the
B-21 will defeat the anti-access, area-denial systems it will face."

Warden could not discuss specifics of those technologies but said the
bomber will be more stealthy.

"When we talk about low observability, it is incredibly low
observability," Warden said. "You'll hear it, but you really won't see it."

Six B-21 Raiders are in production; The Air Force plans to build 100
that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be
used with or without a human crew. Both the Air Force and Northrop also
point to the Raider's relatively quick development: The bomber went from
contract award to debut in seven years. Other new fighter and ship
programs have taken decades.

The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously put the
price for a buy of 100 aircraft at an average cost of $550 million each
in 2010 dollars — roughly $753 million today — but it's unclear how much
the Air Force is actually spending.

The fact that the price is not public troubles government watchdogs.

"It might be a big challenge for us to do our normal analysis of a major
program like this," said Dan Grazier, a senior defense policy fellow at
the Project on Government Oversight. "It's easy to say that the B-21 is
still on schedule before it actually flies. Because it's only when one
of these programs goes into the actual testing phase when real problems
are discovered. And so that's the point when schedules really start to
slip and costs really start to rise."

The Raider will not make its first flight until 2023. However, using
advanced computing, Warden said, Northrop Grumman has been testing the
Raider's performance using a digital twin, a virtual replica of the one
being unveiled.

The B-2 was also envisioned to be a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, but
the Air Force ultimately built only 21 of them, due to cost overruns and
a changed security environment after the Soviet Union fell.

Fewer than that are ready to fly on any given day due to the significant
maintenance needs of the aging bomber, said Todd Harrison, an aerospace
specialist and managing director at Metrea Strategic Insights.

The B-21 Raider, which takes its name from the 1942 Doolittle Raid over
Tokyo, will be slightly smaller than the B-2 to increase its range,
Warden said.

In October 2001, B-2 pilots set a record when they flew 44 hours
straight to drop the first bombs in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11
attacks. But the B-2 often does long round-trip missions, because there
are few hangars globally that can accommodate its wingspan. That limits
where B-2s can land for needed post-flight maintenance. And the hangars
needed to be air-conditioned — because the Spirit's windows don't open,
hotter climates can cook cockpit electronics.

The new Raider will also get new hangars, to accommodate the size and
complexity of the bomber, Warden said.

stealth bomber
u.s. air force
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