Photo: USAF
Just a few days ago we learned of America's newest bomber, the B-21 Raider, having begun engine run tests on the ground at the Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, California. As it often happens in military hardware development, we were expecting some time to pass until we got another update on the project, but we were wrong.
Last week, the National Harbor convention center on the Potomac River was the place where the Air, Space and Cyber Conference unfolded, and a lot of the events and discussions there were, naturally, centered around the B-21 Raider. As the event concluded, the plane's maker, Northrop Grumman, decided to give us an update on where the plane is at now, and what we should expect next.
The first thing to note is that the plane shown on the tarmac last week is not a prototype, but something the company calls a test vehicle. What that means is that, unlike a prototype, this one was put together "on the same manufacturing line with equal tooling that will be utilized to continue shaping the B-21 fleet."
This allows Northrop Grumman to do "learning and refining in parallel," but more importantly it gives the U.S. Air Force (USAF) access to a machine already equipped with comms and nav systems. That makes it ready from the get-go for a much more comprehensive test campaign than it would have been possible with a prototype.
Separately from the physical, actual test vehicle, engineers are also working with the nuclear bomber in the virtual environment. The focus here is more on the plane's performance and behavior, allowing teams working on it to test systems in simulated environments before moving to the actual test phase.
The way things are done means "the B-21 is much further along on tech data than we would typically expect on a new program at this point," according to the company's VP Doug Young. In parallel, work on product support, material readiness and training has already begun.
The info coming from National Harbor also points to Northrop Grumman having already commenced testing not only of the engines, but also of weapons bay doors, landing gear and control services.
All of the above details, although new to the general public, still do not spill all the beans on the plane's capabilities. We don't even know for sure how many engines it'll have, and of what type they'll be (probably two, and likely of the Pratt & Whitney F135 variety).
Despite being further along in the development process than such programs usually are at this stage, the B-21 Raider is still a long way from entering service. In the most optimistic of scenarios, it won't do that before 2027, and it'll only become a common sight in our skies around 2040.
By then, it would have completely replaced the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit, leaving only the veteran B-52 Stratofortress as America's only other bomber.
The first thing to note is that the plane shown on the tarmac last week is not a prototype, but something the company calls a test vehicle. What that means is that, unlike a prototype, this one was put together "on the same manufacturing line with equal tooling that will be utilized to continue shaping the B-21 fleet."
This allows Northrop Grumman to do "learning and refining in parallel," but more importantly it gives the U.S. Air Force (USAF) access to a machine already equipped with comms and nav systems. That makes it ready from the get-go for a much more comprehensive test campaign than it would have been possible with a prototype.
Separately from the physical, actual test vehicle, engineers are also working with the nuclear bomber in the virtual environment. The focus here is more on the plane's performance and behavior, allowing teams working on it to test systems in simulated environments before moving to the actual test phase.
The way things are done means "the B-21 is much further along on tech data than we would typically expect on a new program at this point," according to the company's VP Doug Young. In parallel, work on product support, material readiness and training has already begun.
The info coming from National Harbor also points to Northrop Grumman having already commenced testing not only of the engines, but also of weapons bay doors, landing gear and control services.
All of the above details, although new to the general public, still do not spill all the beans on the plane's capabilities. We don't even know for sure how many engines it'll have, and of what type they'll be (probably two, and likely of the Pratt & Whitney F135 variety).
Despite being further along in the development process than such programs usually are at this stage, the B-21 Raider is still a long way from entering service. In the most optimistic of scenarios, it won't do that before 2027, and it'll only become a common sight in our skies around 2040.
By then, it would have completely replaced the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit, leaving only the veteran B-52 Stratofortress as America's only other bomber.
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