U.S. Air Force’s B-21 Raider stealth bombers are now conducting test flights from Edwards Air Force Base in California. The first B-21 flew for the first time November, 2023.
Six pre-production B-21 have been built and one flew a sortie from Edwards today.
Edwards has also received significant physical upgrades in recent years to support the arrival of the B-21 test program. All six pre-production jets are expected to eventually touch down at the base.
The Air Force currently expects the B-21 to enter service in the latter half of this decade. The Raider is slated to replace the service’s B-1B and B-2 bombers.
The Air Force might have 24 to 30 operational B-21s by 2030. The US would ramp up to building about ten B-21s per year at full planned production.
The US bomber inventory is 141 B-52s, B-1s and B-2s. This is smaller than at almost any time in USAF history. The Pentagon’s current plan yields a bomber fleet of just 133 by 2033. The B-21s would start operating before the B-1s and B-2s are retired.
The US has 20 operational B-2s. The US has about 67 operational B1 bombers.
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Don’t cheap out because that will cost more in the long run. We now have three different strategic bombers because we cancel bomber programs due to perceived cost. The problem is that a very large portion of the money is spent upfront. And a lot of maintenance money has to be spent maintaining multiple maintenance programs. Just bite the bullet and build the required number of bombers so all the old bombers can be retired.
Absolute waste of taxpayer money, a gratuitous bump in the national debt. Time and again it’s proved that the most accurate way to deliver a bomb is in a pickup-truck, and the same is true for nukes.
These bombers are not for strikes on North American territory, they are at this time aimed at Russia or China. To use them invites counterstrikes, and no matter how effective our defense some of the counters would get through. Millions of US casualties. What is worth a million American lives? Eh?
Counterstrikes for nuclear attacks on the U.S. or allies is their strategic purpose, though they can also be used for conventional operations.
MAD is what has avoided nuclear war for 70 years, not any defense. It’s just absurdly wrong to claim the most accurate way to deliver a bomb is a pickup truck, unless accuracy includes the fact that it would rarely be possible to deliver it that way at all.
The whole purpose of this platform is to deter war. Some strategic bombers are always in the air. With ~100 B-21s we could expect at least 30 to survive an initial wave of nuclear strikes from Russia or China. Those 30 would land at undamaged airbases, refuel, and then proceed to fly to Russia or China to strike critical military bunkers with earth penetrating nuclear weapons. The B-21 ensures that in the event of nuclear war a good chunk of Russia or China’s leadership does not survive the first 48 hours thus deterring war. It is an excellent investment.
I like everything about the BlackFly except it’s belly landing. Would prefer wheels and wings. I’m just old fashion and prefer something that resembles an airplane.