Northrop used digital testing to ‘burn down risk’ in developing B-21

PALMDALE, Calif. — For the primary time in a era, the Air Force unveiled a brand new stealth bomber — a modern, high-powered weapon the service hopes can be so lethal it will pressure leaders in China or Russia to Rethinking Wars for Decades to Come.

The Air Force unveiled the Northrop Grumman-made B-21 Raider Friday in a ceremony at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., attended by senior protection officers, Northrop Grumman government director Kathy Warden, and a tribute to the well-known Doolittle participated fighters, after which the bomber is known as.

“The boldness of the Doolittle Raiders has inspired generations of American aviators,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin mentioned on the ceremony because the imposing plane loomed behind him. “It is fitting that the next chapter of the American Air Force be named after them.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is American-style deterrence,” Austin mentioned.

The ceremony was attended by households of a few of the Doolittle Raiders and a crowd of Northrop Grumman workers. Their temper was celebratory as employees sometimes broke into chants of “USA! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!” and cheered.

As dusk fell and a Northrop Grumman employee sang the national anthem, a procession of three bombers sped overhead—first a B-52 Stratofortress, then a B-1 Lancer with its afterburners roaring, and finally a B-2 Spirit Bomber.

Dramatic music was played after Warden’s comments, in which she thanked the staff who designed and built the bomber. A pair of massive hangar doors slid open, where the B-21 stood under a massive cover and was bathed in fog and blue light.

The cloth fell down, revealing the bomber, which was dragged forward to the edge of the hangar to applause from the crowd.

The long-awaited debut of the B-21 marks a milestone in the transformation of the Air Force’s increasingly creaky bomber fleet. It comes at a time when Russia is attempting to conquer Ukraine, China’s view of Taiwan is worrisome, and the US military wants a high-profile demonstration as a stark warning to America’s adversaries.

And should war break out with China, that nation’s recent military advances — particularly air defenses — will require the Air Force to have aircraft capable of penetrating enemy territory undetected. The Air Force hopes that the B-21’s advanced stealth capabilities will allow it to conduct such penetrating attack missions.

Air Force leaders see the B-21 as the “spine” of their future bomber force and a key element of the US military arsenal for perhaps the next half century. When the highly classified, mysterious bomber arrives at Air Force bases like Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota later this decade, it will arrive — and treasured — capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional weapons, including standoff and direct attack munitions The program costs 203 billion US dollars.

The B-21 will be one of the two largest aircraft acquisitions in US military history, rivaled only by the F-35, Todd Harrison, defense budget expert and managing director of Metrea Strategic Insights, told Defense News. Other major efforts include naval shipbuilding programs such as the Columbia- and Virginia-class submarines and the next-generation nuclear missile called the Sentinel, formerly known as Ground Based Strategic Deterrent.

The ceremony marked the first time in more than three decades that the Air Force rolled out a new bomber since the B-2 Spirit debuted at the same location in November 1988. As with its predecessor, the bat-shaped B-21 features a flying wing design with no tail and minimal fuselage, reducing drag and its signature on enemy radar.

As more B-21s become available, they will replace the aging B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers as the Air Force transitions to a planned two-bomber fleet. The Air Force plans to phase out all B-1s and B-2s by the early 2030s, leaving service with a fleet of at least 100 Cold War-era B-21s and B-52 Stratofortresses with revised engines.

The Air Force has kept details of its new bomber top secret for years – and apart from the bomber’s view, that hasn’t changed even with its public unveiling. In briefings prior to the ceremony, Air Force and Northrop Grumman officials gave no new information about their capabilities.

But in his speech, Austin touted the bomber’s capabilities, which would allow the US to deter enemies and strike targets even in highly contested airspace.

The B-21’s range will allow the bomber to conduct missions without being stationed in the theater of operations or requiring logistical support on a mission, Austin said. Its stealth capabilities will mean that “even probably the most superior air protection techniques can have bother recognizing a B-21 in the sky,” he added.

And its open techniques structure will make it extremely adaptable and “ready to defend our nation with new weapons that have not even been created but.”

“The B-21 appears spectacular,” Austin said. “But what’s beneath the body and spacey coatings is much more spectacular.”

In a briefing with reporters ahead of the ceremony, Warden said Northrop Grumman experimented with thousands of designs for the bomber in a digital environment before settling on the final version.

In a November interview with Defense News, Tom Jones, president of Northrop Grumman’s Aeronautics Systems Unit, touted the B-21 as the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft. He cited its advanced stealth capabilities, its open systems architecture designed to enable future modernization, and its use of data-sharing technologies as part of the Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, effort.

This B-21, numbered 001 and designated T1 for the first flight test aircraft, is one of six Raiders in various stages of construction at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. More will follow, although Jones declined to say when construction of the seventh B-21 is likely to begin.

The first B-21 has undergone ground testing, final assembly and the application of coatings and paints ahead of its debut over the past few months.

The next big step will be the first flight to Edwards Air Force Base in California, which is expected to take place sometime in 2023. Northrop Grumman said the date of this first flight will be based on the results of future additional ground tests.

These tests include turning the Raider’s systems on and off, running its engines, performing roll test runs, and other integration tests.

Once the Raider is in Edwards, the Air Force will conduct further flight testing.

This first bomber is a representative production aircraft essentially identical to the production aircraft that will eventually be produced by Northrop Grumman.

According to Jones, this differs from most new aircraft programs, where the first flight is typically performed by an aircraft that is not representative of production, resulting in longer test times. He said using a production-representative aircraft for flight testing of the B-21 should speed up the process.

Jones also said Northrop Grumman used digital testing extensively to “mitigate danger” and find and fix potential problems with the bomber in a virtual environment.

The Air Force said in an email to Defense News that the B-21 remains below its average procurement cost per unit, which is now $692 million in 2022 when adjusted for inflation. That represents the total cost of all procurement financing, including airfare, support equipment, training, spare parts and future modifications, the service said.

Bloomberg reported in 2021 that the B-21 is expected to cost $203 billion over 30 years.

Other contractors for the B-21 include engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, BAE Systems, Collins Aerospace, Janicki Industries, GKN Aerospace and Spirit Aerosystems.

The Air Force commissioned Northrop Grumman to build the B-21—originally called the long-range bomber—in 2015, and the first rendering of the design was unveiled the following year.

The program passed its critical design review in 2018. And in March 2019, the Air Force announced that it had selected Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, as its first operational B-21 bomber base, as well as its formal training unit.

B-21s will also be based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.

Earlier this year, Ellsworth began building a 95,000-square-foot hangar to maintain the B-21’s barely visible camouflage coating. This was the first of about three dozen major projects at Ellsworth to prepare for the bomber’s arrival later in the decade.

The B-21’s name commemorates one of the most famous missions in Air Force history – the Doolittle Raid of 1942. During this mission, the first United States pushback against Japan after Pearl Harbor, 80 Airmen flew under the command of Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers from aircraft carriers to bomb Tokyo. The story of the Doolittle Raiders boosted American morale and forced Japan to divert its troops.

The Air Force invited Airmen to suggest names for the B-21 in early 2016 and announced later that year that it had christened it the Raider. The late Lt. Col. Richard Cole, Doolittle’s co-pilot on the lead bomber, appeared with former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James at the September 2016 Air Force Association conference to unveil the name. Cole, who died in 2019, was 101 when he performed.

A Mitchell bomber was on display before the ceremony, along with other aircraft including a B-2 and an F-35.

In the briefing prior to the ceremony, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown said the new bomber will carry on the Doolittle Raiders legacy.

“Think of the Doolittle Raiders and what they might do,” Brown said. “Just just a few months after the assault on Pearl Harbor, you positioned a bomber on an plane service for the primary time and attacked Japan.”

“This is innovation,” Brown continued. “This spirit of innovation is sitting behind us proper now.”