The US Air Force on Friday will unveil its new B-21 Raider, a high-techstealth bomber that can carry nuclear and conventional weapons and isdesigned to be able to fly without a crew on board.
The B-21 — which is on track to cost nearly $700 million per plane and isthe first new US bomber in decades — will gradually replace the B-1 andB-2 aircraft, which first flew during the Cold War.
“The B-21 will be the backbone of our future bomber force. It will possessthe range, access and payload to penetrate the most highly-contested threatenvironments and hold any target around the globe at risk,” US Air Forcespokesperson Ann Stefanek told AFP.
The first B-21 flight is expected to take place next year, and the AirForce plans to buy at least 100 of the aircraft, Stefanek said.
Manufacturer Northrop Grumman said six of the planes are currently indifferent stages of assembly and testing at its facility in Palmdale,California, where the unveiling will take place.
Many specifics of the aircraft are being kept under wraps, but the planeshould offer significant advances over existing bombers in the US fleet.
Among the new capabilities offered by the B-21 is the potential foruncrewed flight. Stefanek said the aircraft is “provisioned for thepossibility, but there has been no decision to fly without a crew.”
*- ‘Designed to evolve’ -*
The plane also features an “open architecture,” which is meant to alloweasier and quicker upgrades.
Read Top Stories
Amy Nelson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the B-21is “designed to evolve.”
“The ‘open architecture’ allows for the future integration of improvedsoftware (including for autonomy) so the aircraft doesn’t become obsoleteas quickly,” she said.
“The B-21 is much fancier than its predecessors — truly modern. Not onlyis it dual-capable (unlike the B-2), which means it can launch nuclear orconventionally armed missiles, it can launch long- and short-rangemissiles,” Nelson added.
Like the F-22 and F-35 warplanes, the B-21 will feature stealth technology,which minimizes an aircraft’s signature through both its shape and thematerials it is constructed from, making it harder for adversaries todetect.
The technology has been around for decades, but Northrop said the planewill feature the “next generation of stealth” and that it is employingunspecified “new manufacturing techniques and materials” on the B-21.
The “Raider” portion of the aircraft’s name honors the 1942 US bomber raidon Tokyo led by lieutenant colonel James Doolittle — the first Americanstrike on Japan’s homeland following the surprise attack on Pearl Harborthe previous year. – APP/AFP
