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A B-21 Raider conducts ground testing, taxiing and flying operations at Edwards Air Force Base. (US Air Force)
First strike: B-21 Raider flight testing steps up
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It’s been two years since the B-21 Raider was unveiled to the world at a glitzy ceremony hosted by manufacturer Northrop Grumman. Yet while little hard information on its specs has been released since, the aircraft has been spotted by eagle-eyed aviation photographers recently soaring over Edwards Air Force Base in California, where it is conducting flight testing.
The Raider, of course, is the ‘sequel’ to the UFO-like B-2 Spirit. Designed to strike silently deep behind enemy lines, the “sixth generation” bomber boasts a 9,500km range and advanced stealth capabilities. The US will purchase at least 100, with the first set to enter service by the mid-2020s. “The world has never seen technology like what Northrop Grumman developed for our B-21,” cooed the prime in 2022.
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But with excitement building, Northrop has begun to reveal details about its progress. Speaking at an aerospace panel in Maryland last month, Thomas Jones, Northrop’s aeronautics systems sector president, said the aircraft is now regularly flying twice a week. “When we started this journey, we made a vow that we were going to design this system to be a daily flyer,” he said. “It’s been a phenomenal year of progress, and we hope to continue that through the next year.”
To mark its progress, Northrop has also released this new photo of the Raider soaring over Edwards Air Force Base, possibly taken in a chasing F-16. As we approach the end of 2024, the B-21 program is preparing to deliver aircraft to Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB), South Dakota, which will be its main operating base and the location of the formal training unit. In addition, the US Air Force has also just announced the second and third basing locations will be Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas.
In fact, the B-21 has already completed the static test used to evaluate the structural integrity of the aircraft and now moves to a fatigue testing campaign. “We are the free world’s only bomber force,” added Commander General Thomas Bussiere, a key figure in the US’s nuclear-carrying Air Force Global Strike Command. “Nobody on the planet can do what we’re doing right now. Nobody on the planet can build an exquisite, technologically advanced platform like the B-21, and quite frankly, nobody on the planet can hold at risk what we can hold at risk at a time and place of our choosing.”
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