The U.S. Air Force has released new video footage of its first pre-production B-21 Raider stealth bomber undergoing flight testing. The service just recently confirmed plans to field Raider squadrons at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, in addition to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota that is set to be the home of the first operational B-21s.
The Air Force released the video above around the Air & Space Forces Association’s main annual conference, which wraps up today just outside Washington, D.C. Today also happens to be the Air Force’s 77th birthday.
The footage again various distinctive features of the B-21, including its unusual cockpit window arrangement, which you can read more about here. Also prominently visible are the Raider’s two swing-up auxiliary intake doors. These help suck in more air for the engines during take-offs and landings where high power settings, steeper angles of attack, and slower speeds can be too much for the bomber’s deeply-buried main inlets to handle alone.
Northrop Grumman’s B-21 is the most advanced aircraft ever built, at least that we know about, and is the most significant development for the U.S. Air Force in recent memory, as The War Zone has explored in detail in the past. The first pre-production Raider, which took to the skies for the first time from Plant 42 in Palmdale, California last November and is now at Edwards Air Force Base in the same state, is also said to be very representative of the final production configuration. Five more pre-production examples are in various stages of being built and work on an initial lot of production B-21s is underway.
The Air Force currently plans to buy at least 100 B-21s, but there have already been discussions about a larger total fleet size. As already noted, the first operational Raiders are set to head to Ellsworth and the hope is that the bombers will be flying real missions before the end of the decade. The Air Force will then move to establish B-21 squadrons at Whiteman and Dyess.
“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,” Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), said in a statement last week. This accompanied the formal announcement that B-21s will be headed to Whiteman and Dyess.
Before then, the expanding force of pre-production B-21s based at Edwards will be put through extensive testing.
“We are in the flight test program, the flight test program is proceeding well,” Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, told members of Congress in May. “It is doing what flight test programs are designed to do, which is helping us learn about the unique characteristics of this platform, but in a very, very effective way.”
The new video underscores this important testing work as the Air Force moves toward fielding its first B-21s in the coming years.
The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have provided additional updates about the B-21 program, which you can find here.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com