The video reveals the B-21 Raider stealth bomber taking off and touchdown at Edwards Air Drive Base, the place it’s present process an in depth flight check marketing campaign.

The U.S. Air Drive has launched for the primary time on Sep. 18, 2024, a video of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber throughout flight operations. The brief B-roll reveals the Raider taking off and touchdown at Edwards Air Drive Base, California, the place it’s presently present process an extensive flight test campaign.

“Flight testing is a important step within the check marketing campaign managed by the Air Drive Check Middle and 412th Check Wing’s B-21 Mixed Check Drive (CTF) to offer survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to discourage aggression and strategic assaults in opposition to the USA, allies, and companions”, stated the Air Drive within the caption accompanying the video.

The video has been launched in event of a B-21 Replace panel on the 2024 Air, Area & Cyber Convention by the Air & Area Forces Affiliation, deliberate for Sep. 18. The video additionally comes few days after the information about Whiteman AFB, Missouri, and Dyess AFB, Texas, being designated as the second and third bases respectively for the B-21.

“The B-21 would be the spine of the service’s future bomber power, and can possess the vary, entry and payload to penetrate probably the most highly-contested menace environments and maintain any goal across the globe in danger,” says the Air Drive. Work is ongoing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, which was beforehand chosen as the primary base to obtain the B-21, in preparation of the fielding of the brand new bomber.

The newest replace about this system comes from Common Thomas Bussiere, head of the Air Force Global Strike Command: “We proceed to attain B-21 manufacturing milestones; by way of digital engineering and open structure design, we’re getting an agile strategic deterrent that delivers a decisive response as required.”

The newest updates

As beforehand reported, the B-21 Raider first flew on Nov. 10, 2023, shifting from Air Drive Plant 42 at Palmdale, California, to Edwards AFB. Northrop Grumman, who develops and builds the bomber, says there are presently three B-21 autos present process testing at Edwards AFB, together with one flightworthy instance and two used for floor testing.

The information comes because the B-21 Update panel on the 2024 ASC Convention delivers new particulars in regards to the secretive program. Among the many panelists have been Gen. Bussiere; Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, Eighth Air Drive and Joint-International Strike Operations Middle commander; William Bailey, Division of the Air Drive Speedy Capabilities Workplace director; and Thomas Jones, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Methods sector president.

Jones talked about that the plane is presently capable of generate as much as two check sorties per week, including that they’re dedicated to make it capable of fly day-after-day. “I’m more than happy with how that’s going,” stated Jones. “We’ve been capable of make vital expansions of the flight envelope.”

The concentrate on making the B-21 a “each day flyer” is pushed by the teachings discovered from the upkeep challenges of the B-2 Spirit which is notoriously maintenance-intensive. These challenges have been utilized by Northrop Grumman and the Air Drive to tell the B-21 design.

The panelists additionally described a significant milestone through which the B-21 accomplished its static check on the G-1 asset, one of many two ground-based check articles used to judge the structural integrity of the plane. This check was important to “confirming the structural design of the plane is sound and validated confidence within the digital fashions,” Bailey stated. The plane is now present process fatigue testing.

Remarks delivered throughout the panel confirmed that 21 bombers are presently contracted beneath the Low-Price Preliminary Manufacturing, with the deliveries anticipated within the mid-2020s.

Gen. Bussiere addressed present strategic threats posed by adversaries and the need of the bomber power, and the future capabilities the B-21 will present to maintain tempo with these threats. He additionally underscored the superior technological stage of the brand new plane, which has already been described as the primary 6^th gen plane.

“No one on the planet can do what we’re doing proper now. No one on the planet can construct an beautiful, technologically-advanced platform just like the B-21, and fairly frankly, no one on the planet can maintain in danger what we will maintain in danger at a time and place of our selecting,” stated Bussiere.

B-21 program standing

Shortly after the start of flight testing, Northrop Grumman has been awarded the contract for the Low-Rate Initial Production of the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber. The Pentagon didn’t launch the contract’s particulars, nonetheless, when on the bomber’s rollout in 2022, the Air Drive acknowledged it anticipated common unit procurement value of $692 million.

The variety of plane lined by the primary contract was not disclosed, though some experiences after the primary flight stated it may cowl as much as 21 plane. On the time of the primary flight, Northrop Grumman stated six airframes have been in varied phases of manufacturing, together with the one already flying, which was named “Cerberus”.

The B-21 Raider is finishing up check flights out of Edwards Air Drive Base, in California, the place the plane landed on the finish of its first flight from Air Drive Plant 42 in Palmdale on Nov.10, 2023. Though the U.S. Air Drive has been tight-lipped in regards to the standing of the secretive plane since then, with no additional particulars or images of the bomber’s first flight and arrival at Edwards AFB launched, it acknowledged that the flight test campaign is proceeding.

A spokesperson confirmed, in reality, that the B-21 flew on Jan. 17, 2024, including that the Air Drive wouldn’t present additional particulars in regards to the check program nor the variety of flights the plane has flown. A flight check was rumored to have taken place on Mar. 28, whereas one other one probably befell on Apr. 1. The stealth bomber took to the skies once more on Apr. 4, 2024, when it was caught in a video whereas flying at excessive altitude, escorted by a chase plane.

In Might, each the Air Drive and Northrop Grumman launched images the first photos of the B-21 in flight. In the identical interval, Andrew Hunter, the Air Drive’s Service Acquisition Govt, offered a uncommon replace on the B-21’s standing mentioning the “flight check program is continuing effectively.”

Hunter famous that this system is on monitor, with vital milestones anticipated this 12 months, and expressed optimism in regards to the outcomes. U.S. Air Drive Chief of Employees Gen. David W. Allvin talked about that the Air Drive would possibly restrict the acquisition to the deliberate 100 B-21 Raiders, as newer applied sciences may emerge by the point these bombers are constructed and delivered.