Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider

The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is an American strategic bomber in development for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Northrop Grumman. Part of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program, it is to be a stealth intercontinental strategic bomber that can deliver conventional and thermonuclear weapons. Named "Raider" after the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, the B-21 is meant to complement the Rockwell B-1 Lancer and Northrop B-2 Spirit, replace them by 2040, and possibly replace the 1950s Boeing B-52 Stratofortress after that.

The B-21 is a flying wing and lambda wing, similar to its B-2 predecessor, while being smaller and lighter. Unlike previous bombers, the B-21 is designed primarily for Indo-Pacific Command operations in a potential conflict with China. It is to carry the AGM-181 LRSO strategic nuclear cruise missile, the B61 Mod 12 and Mod 13 strategic/tactical nuclear bombs, and conventional ordnance including the AGM-158 JASSM-ER cruise missile.

The B-21 emerged from the Air Force's LRS-B program, which began in 2011 and awarded Northrop Grumman the major development contract in 2015. The USAF aimed to have the aircraft in service "in the mid-2020s". By 2021, that date had slipped to 2027.

The B-21 is part of the effort to modernize the nuclear triad of the United States, along with the LGM-35 Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile and Columbia-class submarine. The B-21 is expected to double the US nuclear-capable bomber fleet from 60 to 120.

As of 2025, many aspects of the B-21 special access program were still highly classified, though some information has been made public since 2015. The first B-21 aircraft was unveiled in December 2022 at Northrop Grumman's production facilities in Palmdale, California. The first flight of a B-21 took place on 10 November 2023. Two other B-21s were in ground testing by September 2024, and a second B-21 took flight a year later.

Design and development

The Air Force launched the classified Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program in 2011 to create a stealthy intercontinental strategic bomber that could deliver conventional and thermonuclear weapons. The service issued a request for proposals to develop an LRS-B aircraft in July 2014 and awarded a development contract to Northrop Grumman in October 2015. The contract award was protested by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, who had submitted a joint bid, but a year later the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained the USAF's decision. The GAO report revealed that cost was the deciding factor in selecting Northrop Grumman over the Boeing-Lockheed Martin team.

Management and acquisition of the B-21 program is overseen by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, rather than through the traditional military-procurement process. The program remains subject to the Nunn–McCurdy reporting requirements to the US Congress.

A 2015 media report said the Air Force wanted the bomber to also function as an intelligence collection platform, battle manager, and interceptor aircraft. In 2016, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the B-21 would be a "fifth-generation global precision attack platform" with networked sensor-shoot capability. Northrop Grumman describes the B-21 as "the world's first sixth-generation aircraft."

At the 2016 Air Warfare Symposium, Air Force officials announced that the LRS-B would be designated "B-21" because it would be the 21st century's first bomber. In September 2016, Air Force officials announced that the B-21 would be named "Raider" in honor of the Doolittle Raiders. Retired Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, the last member of the Doolittle Raiders then living, was present at the naming ceremony at the Air Force Association conference.

In March 2016, the USAF announced seven tier-one suppliers for the program: Pratt & Whitney, BAE Systems, Spirit AeroSystems, Orbital ATK, Rockwell Collins, GKN Aerospace, and Janicki Industries.

In 2016, the F-35 program manager Chris Bogdan said the B-21's engines would be similar enough to the F-35's Pratt & Whitney F135 engine to reduce its cost.

The program completed its critical design review in December 2018. In January 2020, Air Force officials released new B-21 renderings, showing the distinctive flush and blended inlets and the two-wheel main landing gear design. The drawing appeared to show a smaller, lighter aircraft than the B-2. Similar to the B-2, it is a flying wing and lambda wing design.

Production and assembly

In February 2016, the head of the Air Force Global Strike Command said he expected the service would place an initial order for 100 B-21s and build up to a full fleet of 175 to 200. In 2017, two USAF studies suggested that the Air Force could increase its initial purchase from 80-to-100 to 145 aircraft.

The B-21 is assembled at the USAF Plant 42 near Palmdale, California, at the same facility Northrop Grumman used during the 1980s and 1990s to build B-2 bombers.

In January 2017, Northrop Grumman was awarded a $35.8 million contract modification for a large coatings facility at Plant 42, to be completed by the end of 2019. The contract announcement did not mention the B-21, but the facility is thought likely to be for B-21 stealth coating. By the summer of 2019, it was reported that construction of the first aircraft was underway. In early 2021, several media outlets reported that as completion of the first B-21 approached, construction on the second unit had begun.

At a congressional hearing in June 2021, Darlene Costello, the acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, confirmed that the first two B-21s were under construction at Plant 42.

By February 2022, six B-21s were under construction. The first B-21 was moved to a calibration facility the following month. About 8,000 Northrop Grumman employees had worked on the program with more than 400 suppliers from at least 40 states.

The first B-21 test aircraft was unveiled at Northrop Grumman's production facilities in Palmdale, California, on 2 December 2022. At the unveiling, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said that the B-21 is designed with modular, open systems architecture to allow easy upgrades and, potentially, the ability to export components to foreign buyers. Warden said that the B-21's internal operations were "extremely advanced compared to the B-2" and that the B-21 was slightly smaller than the B-2, but the range was longer.

The first B-21s are not prototypes but rather test aircraft that the Air Force will convert to operational configuration after the completion of tests.

In September 2023, program officials said fueling and engine tests were proceeding ahead of the anticipated first flight by year's end. The first test flight of the B-21 took place on 10 November 2023 at the Air Force's Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

On 23 January 2024, a low rate initial production (LRIP) contract was awarded.

Program costs

In July 2016, the USAF said it would not release the estimated cost of Northrop's B-21 contract as the number would reveal too much about the classified project to potential adversaries. The Senate Armed Services Committee also voted not to publicly release the program's cost, restricting the information to congressional defense committees, over the objections of a bipartisan group of legislators led by the committee's chairman, Senator John McCain. McCain's proposed revisions to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017 would have reduced authorization for the B-21 program by $302 million "due to a lower-than-expected contract award value", while requiring "strict ... program baseline and cost control thresholds", "quarterly program performance reports", and "disclosure of the engineering and manufacturing development total contract award value". The versions of the 2017 NDAA as initially passed by the House and Senate would have required public disclosure of the total cost of the B-21, but this provision was removed in the final conference report version.

In December 2022, the cost of the B-21 was estimated at $700 million per aircraft. At the time, Air Force officials estimated that they would spend at least $203 billion over 30 years to develop, purchase, and operate a fleet of at least 100 B-21s.

Maintenance, sustainment, and operation

Maintenance and sustainment of the B-21 will be coordinated by Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, while Edwards Air Force Base, California, will lead testing and evaluation. The B-21 is expected to operate from bases that currently host heavy bombers, such as Dyess Air Force Base, Texas; Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota; and Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri. In March 2019, Ellsworth was selected as the base to host the first operational B-21 unit, as well as the first training unit.