Antelope Valley Press

Newer, advanced stealth bomber

Northrop unveils its B-21 Raider for first time

By ALLISON GATLIN Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE — “This changes everything.”

Such was the theme as the B-21 Raider, the nation’s newest, most advanced stealth bomber, was revealed for the first time, Friday night.

With the crowd gathered in the dark outside, the bomber emerged to flashing lights and dramatic music from a hangar at Northrop Grumman’s facility at Air Force Plant 42 to the cheers of thousands of employees who helped create it, along with military brass, local officials and other invited guests.

As the hangar doors slowly opened, it reveled the bomber’s shape, still shrouded and under wraps until the material was pulled away to expose the B-21 itself, and the aircraft was slowly towed to the opening.

“The B-21 looks imposing, but what’s under the frame and the space-age coatings is even more impressive,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

The rollout ceremony began with the National Anthem sung by Northrop employee and B-21 team member Johan Riley and accompanied by a bomber flyover of a B-52, B-1B and B-2.

The B-21 will eventually replace the B-1B and B-2 stealth bomber in the nation’s bomber fleet.

“We are opening a new era in technology for national defense,” Northrop Grumman Chair, CEO and President Kathy Warden said. “The B-21 Raider represents a view into the future and brings it to

the here and now.”

The aircraft was designed using digital tools, allowing the team to test aspects virtually, speeding the design and eventually flight test process.

Advances in stealth technology and other improvements are intended to make the B-21 easy to maintain and be ready to fly daily.

The bomber is designed to easily add new hardware and software to allow it to adapt to new threats.

“This bomber will be able to defend with new weapons that haven’t even been invented yet,” Austin said.

The B-21 is intended to carry nuclear and conventional weapons and may fly with or without a pilot in the cockpit.

The rollout was a historic moment for the nation, the Air Force and the Antelope Valley.

“This is a big day for the entire country. Being a longtime resident of the Aerospace Valley, this means extra to me,” Assemblyman Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, said. “This is a huge step forward and for safety.”

State Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, recalled working with former Rep. Steve Knight to establish an aerospace tax credit to encourage development of the bomber here, bringing “lots of mortgage-paying jobs.”

The first new bomber introduced in 30 years, the B-21 is similar in appearance to its predecessor, the batwing B-2 stealth bomber, but it features technology improvements to meet the digital age, and has been dubbed a sixth-generation aircraft.

The B-21 will be the backbone of the future bomber fleet. “It’s going to change things we do in the future,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown, Jr. said.

The bomber is nicknamed after the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, the daring action only months after the attack on Pearl Harbor to launch 16 B-25 bombers from an aircraft carrier in a raid on Japan.

“That’s innovation. That innovative spirit is behind us right here,” Brown said, in a discussion before the still-shrouded aircraft. “The Raider spirit lives on.”

Six of the stealthy B-21 test aircraft are in various stages of final assembly at the company’s Palmdale facility.

The test aircraft revealed, Friday, is almost identical to the bomber that will ultimately be produced for the Air Force fleet, envisioned to number 100 B-21s.

The aircraft is expected to make its first flight, next year, with timing dependent on ground testing, Northrop Grumman officials said.

The first flight will likely be to Edwards Air Force Base, where testing of the new bomber will be conducted.

The Air Force awarded the classified bomber contract to Northrop Grumman, in October 2015, and confirmed that manufacturing would take place there, in 2019. The development program employs thousands of people in Palmdale, more than doubling the number of employees since the contract was awarded in 2015.

The bombers are scheduled to become operational, in the mid2020s.

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2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

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