The US Air Force earlier unveiled the B-21, its first new bomber in 30 years since the B-2 bomber debuted in 1989. It was named “Raider” in honor of the Doolittle Raid during the Second World War. The B-21 was also developed by Northrop Grumman, which also built the B-2 bomber. Although most of the details are still unknown (even in the revealing conference, the US military was careful to show only its front), but it is clear It continues to appear unique to the B-2 in its basic configuration, adopting a design with delta wing wings and no straight tail. Northrop Grumman called it “the world’s first sixth generation fighter”, but currently the definition of the sixth generation fighter is not as clear as the definition of the fifth generation fighter (with radar stealth capability), so it is impossible to judge its capability from this. up.
The Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd Austin, said in his speech that the B-21 is the crystallization of low visibility technology during the last 50 years. In addition to facing the most advanced radar and air defense systems, it can still maintain stealth. also a marked improvement. The aircraft will also adopt a cloud-integrated digital architecture, allowing the US military to update the B-21’s defenses in real time depending on the battlefield situation and needs.
It can be said that the B-2 bomber, the predecessor of the B-21, was born at an untimely moment. It left the factory on the night before the fall of the former Soviet Union, which caused the US military to call for the highly reduced bomber B-2 suddenly expensive, and reduced the original purchase of 132. For 21 frames. With such a small number of aircraft to share the research and development costs, the unit price of each aircraft is as high as 2.4 billion US dollars, which is two or three times more expensive than the same weight of gold. The B-21 can be considered a simplified version of the B-2 to some extent, but due to the support of technological progress in the last 30 years, its capabilities are not necessarily inferior to the B-2. The latest forecast is that if the B-21 purchase quantity can reach the predetermined 100, the unit price of each can be as low as about 700 million US dollars – this is still expensive and scary, but o at least it is much more reasonable. than B-2 Bar.
Northrop Grumman currently has a total of six B-21s being assembled, and the unveiling ceremony is actually the roll-off ceremony of the first prototype. The B-21 is expected to begin flight testing next year and enter service around 2025.
