The video shows the B-21 Raider stealth bomber taking off and landing at Edwards Air Force Base, where it is undergoing an extensive flight test campaign.
The U.S. Air Force has released for the first time on Sep. 18, 2024, a video of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber during flight operations. The short B-roll shows the Raider taking off and landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, where it is currently undergoing an extensive flight test campaign.
“Flight testing is a critical step in the test campaign managed by the Air Force Test Center and 412th Test Wing’s B-21 Combined Test Force (CTF) to provide survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to deter aggression and strategic attacks against the United States, allies, and partners”, said the Air Force in the caption accompanying the video.
The video has been released in occasion of a B-21 Update panel at the 2024 Air, Space & Cyber Conference by the Air & Space Forces Association, planned for Sep. 18. The video also comes few days after the news about Whiteman AFB, Missouri, and Dyess AFB, Texas, being designated as the second and third bases respectively for the B-21.
“The B-21 will be the backbone of the service’s future bomber force, and will possess the range, access and payload to penetrate the most highly-contested threat environments and hold any target around the globe at risk,” says the Air Force. Work is ongoing at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, which was previously selected as the first base to receive the B-21, in preparation of the fielding of the new bomber.
The latest update about the program comes from General Thomas Bussiere, head of the Air Force Global Strike Command: “We continue to achieve B-21 production milestones; through digital engineering and open architecture design, we are getting an agile strategic deterrent that delivers a decisive response as required.”
The latest updates
As previously reported, the B-21 Raider first flew on Nov. 10, 2023, moving from Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, California, to Edwards AFB. Northrop Grumman, who develops and builds the bomber, says there are currently three B-21 vehicles undergoing testing at Edwards AFB, including one flightworthy example and two used for ground testing.
The info comes as the B-21 Update panel at the 2024 ASC Conference delivers new details about the secretive program. Among the panelists were Gen. Bussiere; Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, Eighth Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center commander; William Bailey, Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director; and Thomas Jones, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems sector president.
Jones mentioned that the aircraft is currently able to generate up to two test sorties per week, adding that they are committed to make it able to fly every day. “I am very pleased with how that’s going,” said Jones. “We’ve been able to make significant expansions of the flight envelope.”
The focus on making the B-21 a “daily flyer” is driven by the lessons learned from the maintenance challenges of the B-2 Spirit which is notoriously maintenance-intensive. These challenges were used by Northrop Grumman and the Air Force to inform the B-21 design.
The panelists also described a significant milestone in which the B-21 completed its static test on the G-1 asset, one of the two ground-based test articles used to evaluate the structural integrity of the aircraft. This test was essential to “confirming the structural design of the aircraft is sound and validated confidence in the digital models,” Bailey said. The aircraft is now undergoing fatigue testing.
Remarks delivered during the panel confirmed that 21 bombers are currently contracted under the Low-Rate Initial Production, with the deliveries expected in the mid-2020s.
Gen. Bussiere addressed current strategic threats posed by adversaries and the necessity of the bomber force, and the future capabilities the B-21 will provide to keep pace with those threats. He also underscored the advanced technological level of the new aircraft, which has already been described as the first 6th gen aircraft.
“Nobody on the planet can do what we’re doing right now. Nobody on the planet can build an exquisite, technologically-advanced platform like the B-21, and quite frankly, nobody on the planet can hold at risk what we can hold at risk at a time and place of our choosing,” said Bussiere.
B-21 program status
Shortly after the beginning 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 did not release the contract’s details, however, when at the bomber’s rollout in 2022, the Air Force stated it expected average unit procurement cost of $692 million.
The number of aircraft covered by the first contract was not disclosed, although some reports after the first flight said it could cover up to 21 aircraft. At the time of the first flight, Northrop Grumman said six airframes were in various stages of production, including the one already flying, which was named “Cerberus”.
The B-21 Raider is carrying out test flights out of Edwards Air Force Base, in California, where the aircraft landed at the end of its first flight from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale on Nov.10, 2023. Although the U.S. Air Force has been tight-lipped about the status of the secretive aircraft since then, with no further details or photos of the bomber’s first flight and arrival at Edwards AFB released, it acknowledged that the flight test campaign is proceeding.
A spokesperson confirmed, in fact, that the B-21 flew on Jan. 17, 2024, adding that the Air Force would not provide further details about the test program nor the number of flights the aircraft has flown. A flight test was rumored to have taken place on Mar. 28, while another one possibly took place on Apr. 1. The stealth bomber took to the skies again on Apr. 4, 2024, when it was caught in a video while flying at high altitude, escorted by a chase aircraft.
In May, both the Air Force and Northrop Grumman released photos the first photos of the B-21 in flight. In the same period, Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s Service Acquisition Executive, provided a rare update on the B-21’s status mentioning the “flight test program is proceeding well.”
Hunter noted that the program is on track, with significant milestones expected this year, and expressed optimism about the results. U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin mentioned that the Air Force might limit the acquisition to the planned 100 B-21 Raiders, as newer technologies could emerge by the time these bombers are built and delivered.
