The U.S. Air Force is planning to unveil its “most advanced” aircraft this week, which will employ the most cutting-edge stealth technologies.
The B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber will be revealed at the Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, California. The bomber is designed to carry out long-range bombing and nuclear missions.
“The B-21 is the most advanced military aircraft ever built and is a product of pioneering innovation and technological excellence,” said Doug Young, Northrop vice president and general manager. “The Raider showcases the dedication and skills of the thousands of people working every day to deliver this aircraft.”
The sixth-generation aircraft is said to utilize previously unseen stealth technology to evade radar detection and can fly with or without pilots.
Northrop Corporate Vice President Thomas H. Jones said the plane was “optimized for operations in highly contested environments.”
“By being able to burn down a lot more risk digitally, we’re able to take this step, which cuts years out of the overall development program and really wrings a lot of risk out,” Jones said. “Hopefully we can get started and up and running in production much more efficiently and effectively.”
Some employees have been working on designing the B-21 production line for more than a decade, and production was never affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“They didn’t have the opportunity to work at home, either because of the classification or they were working in a factory—they were coming in every day, couldn’t tell their families why they were coming in, just they have to go in when a lot of the rest of the world was able to work at home,” Jones said.
“Working through all the turmoil of that and still successfully putting this aircraft together. I’m just so proud of the work that they’ve done, and the excitement on the manufacturing floor and engineering spaces is palpable. Like there’s a lot of people that are looking forward to this,” he continued.
According to Defense One, the plane is expected to make its initial flight next year, while five other aircraft are still in various stages of assembly. Officials with the Air Force said that the service plans to purchase at least 100 of the advanced bombers.
