The B-21 Raider Is Already In Production?

The US Air Force and Northrop Grumman confirmed that the B-21 Raider has just entered production only two months after its test flight. 

America’s New Stealth Bomber

The B-21 Raider is America’s new stealth bomber under development following the design lineage of the B2 Spirit. While both planes do look alike, the B-21 is much smaller and intended to fill a variety of roles. 

Main Differences

The B-2 Spirit is a stealth strategic heavy payload bomber and its job is to fly deep behind enemy lines, deploying conventional or nuclear payloads against strategically valuable targets. 

The B-21 is designed to do the job while flying as an intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance jet – a spy plane, more or less. It’s also an encrypted communications node for ongoing battle networks. 

Production

The craziest thing about this program is that it’s always on time, on budget, and moving even faster than some of us expected. There are at least six B-21s at some stage of production. A big factor behind this is that this is the first bomber the US developed in the 21st century. 

As a result, this jet wasn’t just designed in a computer environment – but also tested in one as well. Today’s simulators can easily run an aircraft design through an entire testing regime long before a single bolt is tightened. 

This is exactly what Northrop Grumman did with the jet. They also might have gotten a head start with the RQ-180 which is one of the most highly classified stealth planes in the US arsenal. The B-21 is expected to enter service by the end of the decade.