New images released this week showed the ultrasleek and uber-deadly B-21 Raider, America’s newest stealth bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons, in flight over Southern California.
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this month, Andrew Hunter, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, told lawmakers the B-21 is currently on schedule. The aircraft, at a price tag of $745 million each, was shown in its first publicly acknowledged test flight out of Edwards Air Force Base in California on Wednesday.
"We are in the flight test program, the flight test program is proceeding well," Hunter said.
"It is doing what flight test programs are designed to do, which is helping us learn about the unique characteristics of this platform, but in a very, very effective way."
The B-21 is categorized as a long-range, highly survivable, penetrating strike stealth bomber that will incrementally replace the B-1 and B-2 bombers and will play a major role supporting national security objectives and assisting U.S. allies and partners across the globe. The bomber can deliver nuclear and convention munitions.
The Air Force has said the B-21 is more digital than not and "is designed with an open systems architecture, enabling rapid insertion of mature technologies, and allowing the aircraft to remain effective as threats evolve over time."
"The aircraft is expected to enter service in the mid-2020s with a production goal of a minimum of 100 aircraft," the Air Force said in a statement.
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman is manufacturing the B-21 which is said to have a wingspan of 172 feet, weigh 30,000 pounds and reach a maximum speed of 621 mph, close to the speed of sound.
The showing off of the B-21 is one of several military flexes the U.S. has announced this month amid burgeoning global conflicts. Earlier in May, the Pentagon announced it was expanding an Army ammunition plant in Oklahoma to triple the production of its largest nonnuclear bomb, capable of destroying underground nuclear facilities.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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