INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
America&s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development, and as part of the Pentagon&s answer to
rising concerns over a future conflict with China.The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years
Almost every aspect of the program is classified, Associated Press reported.As evening fell over the Air Force&s Plant 42 in Palmdale,
California, the public got its first glimpse of the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony
It started with a flyover of the three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit
Then the hangar doors slowly opened and the B-21 was towed partially out of the building.This isn''t just another airplane,& Defense
Secretary Lloyd Austin said
&It&s the embodiment of America&s determination to defend the republic that we all love.The B-21 is part of the Pentagon&s efforts to
modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as
it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China&s rapid military modernization.China is on track to have 1,500
nuclear weapons by 2035, and its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare and space capabilities present ''the most consequential and systemic
challenge to United States national security and the free and open international system,& the Pentagon said this week in its annual China
report.We needed a new bomber for the 21st Century that would allow us to take on much more complicated threats, like the threats that we
fear we would one day face from China, Russia, & said Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary when the Raider contract was announced in
2015.While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop
Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the B-2, because the technology
has evolved so much in terms of the computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,& Warden said.Other changes
include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber harder to detect, Austin said.Fifty years of advances in low-observable
technology have gone into this aircraft,& Austin said
&Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.Other advances likely include new ways to control
electronic emissions, so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as another object, and use of new propulsion
technologies, several defense analysts said.It is incredibly low observability,& Warden said
&You&ll hear it, but you really won''t see it.Six Raiders are in production
The Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs, and can be used with or without a human crew
Both the Air Force and Northrop also point to the Raider&s relatively quick development: The bomber went from contract award to debut in
Other new fighter and ship programs have taken decades.The cost of the bombers is unknown
The Air Force previously put the price at an average cost of $550 million each in 2010 dollars & roughly $753 million today — but it&s
unclear how much is actually being spent
The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.We will soon fly this aircraft, test it, and then move it into production
And we will build the bomber force in numbers suited to the strategic environment ahead,& Austin said.Ellsworth Air Force Base in South
Dakota will house the bomber&s first training program and squadron, though the bombers are also expected to be stationed at bases in Texas
and Missouri.The post US unveils its latest nuclear stealth bomber first appeared on Ariana News.
