The B-21 Raider took its first check flight on Friday, transferring the futuristic warplane nearer to turning into the nation’s subsequent nuclear weapons stealth bomber.
The Raider flew in Palmdale, California, the place it has been below testing and improvement by Northrop Grumman.
The Air Drive is planning to construct 100 of the warplanes, which have a flying wing form very similar to their predecessor the B-2 Spirit however will incorporate superior supplies, propulsion and stealth expertise to make them extra survivable in a future battle. The airplane is deliberate to be produced in variants with and with out pilots.
”The B-21 Raider is in flight testing,” Air Drive spokeswoman Ann Stefanek stated.
Such testing is a important step within the marketing campaign to offer ”survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to discourage aggression and strategic assaults in opposition to the USA, allies, and companions,” Stefanek stated.
Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP
The B-21 Raider is the primary new American bomber plane in additional than 30 years, and nearly each facet of this system is assessed. Each Northrop Grumman and the Air Drive have tried to guard this system’s particulars to forestall China from having access to the weapon’s expertise and constructing an identical model, because it has with different U.S. superior weapons techniques just like the F-35 joint strike fighter.
On the bomber’s unveiling in December, Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin stated the vary of the B-21 is unmatched by another bomber.
”It will not have to be primarily based in-theater, it will not want logistical assist to carry any goal in danger,” the secretary stated.
Austin stated it is going to be tough for adversaries to detect the stealth plane.
”Fifty years of advances in low-observable expertise have gone into this plane,” he stated. ”Even probably the most subtle air-defense techniques will wrestle to detect a B-21 within the sky.”
The Air Drive stated the ”B-21” designation was chosen as a result of the plane is the primary new bomber of the twenty first century, whereas the title ”Raider” was chosen to characterize the Doolittle Raiders, who flew a shock assault throughout World Battle II.
The B-21 is a part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which incorporates silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, because it invests in new weapons to fulfill China’s speedy army modernization.
Northrop Grumman Corp. relies in Falls Church, Virginia.
U.S. Air Drive