Key Points and Summary – The B-21 Raider program is gaining significant momentum, with an Air Force general confirming a second test aircraft is expected to fly before the end of the year.
-This progress is backed by a new $4.5 billion injection of funds designed to speed up production of the sixth-generation stealth bomber.
-While the official plan is for a fleet of 100, top military leaders and analysts are now arguing for a much larger force of up to 200 aircraft.
-They contend that a larger fleet is essential to build a true “campaign force” capable of deterring multiple adversaries simultaneously.
The B-21 Raider: A New Bomber Could Soon Fly
After the first B-21 Raider flew for the first time in late 2023, a second is likely to take off before the end of the year, an Air Force official told Defense One.
“I believe it will happen before the end of the year, but we’re not going to ever give them an artificial date that they have to make if it doesn’t bring the test program along to where they need to be. We’re going to proceed as we can, efficiently, effectively, and with a sense of urgency, but we’re also going to be event-based,” Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, told the outlet.
The Pentagon gave the green light last year for production to begin, with the Air Force getting an additional $4.5 billion in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” to speed up production.
“We’ve done the initial R&D work, we’ve started the flight test…all these things are great indicators of success and a program that’s on time, on budget and producing, but eventually you have to get to the point where we scale this thing and so that’s very important,” Lt. Gen Gebara told Defense One at an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
About the Raider
Per the website of Northrop Grumman, its manufacturer, the B-21 Raider is the “world’s first sixth-generation aircraft.”
“When it comes to delivering America’s resolve, the B-21 Raider will be standing by, silent and ready. We are providing America’s warfighters with an advanced aircraft offering a combination of range, payload, and survivability,” the company says.
“The B-21 Raider will be capable of penetrating the toughest defenses to deliver precision strikes anywhere in the world. The B-21 is the future of deterrence and the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft to reach the skies.”
Quantity or Quality?
According to The War Zone, Air Force Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, commander of the Eighth Air Force, recently gave an online talk in which he discussed the B-21 program.
Among the topics was exactly how many of the aircraft the Air Force is ultimately going to buy.
The current plan is to acquire around 100 of them, but some have advocated for that order to be upped to 145, or possibly even 200.
“So, the B-21, … it’s in flight test now, it’s a phenomenal capability,” Armagost said in the early-August talk. In “the job prior to this … I was interacting with acquisition, RCO [Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office], and Northrop Grumman in how we work together to drive the concepts, drive the requirements, drive the fielding and the manufacture, actually, of this airplane, so that it can become something different when we have it in numbers.”
“That’s what I’m most excited about,” he added. “Sixth-generation stealth brings with it, it brings its own set of pretty amazing capabilities, but what I’m most excited about is the ability to build a campaign force.”
“If we get our numerical force build-out correct, which is always going to be a thing we have to be concerned about, we can build a campaign tempo. We can build diversity of munitions and options for attack. We can build out a range of capabilities that not only hold one theater at risk in conflict, but can be a ready force available if there’s … [other] things that are taking place around the globe,” Armagost added.
The Case for 200 B-21 Raider Bombers
Lexington Institute military analyst and National Security Journal expert Dr. Rebecca Grant, in an interview with Tom Temin on Federal News Network in February, argued that more B-21s should be purchased.
“It’s all very classified, but I think there are a handful at this point and moving into producing several a year,” Grant said in the interview. “The Air Force one’s 100. They should probably go to 200. And honestly, they really ought to probably set up a second production site for the B-21. They can turn about that much more quickly and avoid some of those long, dragged out program costs you mentioned with the F-35.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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