The US Air Force plans to unveil the most advanced aircraft ever created this week, after spending nearly $203 billion on the program.
The B-21 Raider stealth bomber will be unveiled at the Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, California, on Friday, December 2. The bomber was designed to carry out long-range bombing and nuclear missions employing cutting-edge stealth technologies.
Currently, six bombers are being built in Palmdale at about $2 billion per aircraft. They are expected to be flying in 2023.
The Air Force and Northrop began developing the bomber in 2015 after the aerospace and defense company won the contract to design and produce the aircraft. The advanced aircraft was named after the Doolittle Raiders – a team of B-21 bomber crewmen from World War II known for their daring and bravery.
Representatives for Northrop called the B-21 ‘pioneering’ and ‘technological excellence.’
‘The B-21 is the most advanced military aircraft ever built and is a product of pioneering innovation and technological excellence,’ said Northrop sector vice president and general manager Dough Young. ‘The Raider showcases the dedication and skills of the thousands of people working every day to deliver this aircraft,’ he added.
Full details about the bomber have been kept tightly under wraps, with next to nothing having been revealed about the aircraft. Photos of the plane haven’t even been revealed at this point – only artist renderings of the aircraft revealed by the Air Force, and a teaser reel released by Northrup showing the shape of the B-21 hidden beneath a covering.
The plane is said to utilize previously unseen stealth technology to avoid detection from enemies, and could be capable of flying with or without pilots, according to Defense One.
Northrop President Tom Jones said the plane was ‘optimized for operations in highly contested environments.’ The unveiling event on Friday will be by invitation only. Jones told Defense One the development project involved more than 8,000 people across 40 states.
‘I think it’s the first view of what’s going to be a great capability for our country,’ he said.
The Air Force has called the B-21 a sixth-generation aircraft, meaning it would be the most advanced plane on the planet. Aircraft generations denote the major phases of flying technology. The fifth generation – which until the B-21 the world’s most advanced warplanes are a part of – consists of technology that has predominated the 90s and early 21st century.
The Raider was named after a group of World War II bomber pilots and crewmen known as the Doolittle Raiders. They consisted of 80 members of the Air Force who volunteered to attack Tokyo on April 18, 1942, mere months after Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the US into the war the previous December. The bombing raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle and significantly boosted American morale.
The airmen carried out their attack from 16 B-25 bombers, which they launched from the flight deck of the USS Hornet despite the aircraft carrier not being designed to accommodate planes of such size. ‘The raid acted as a catalyst to many future innovations in U.S. air superiority from land or sea,’ Northrop wrote on its website. ‘That bold, innovative and courageous spirit of the Doolittle Raiders has been the inspiration behind the name of America’s next-generation bomber, the B-21 Raider.’
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