Meet America’s next top bomber—the B-21

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The aircraft to be built by Northrop Grumman for the US Air Force's Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) has now been officially designated by the Air Force as the B-21. The first conceptual drawings of the bomber to be revealed look very familiar—almost like a carbon copy of the last bomber the Air Force bought in the 1980s and 1990s.

In a presentation at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando on February 26, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James unveiled an initial conceptual drawing of the aircraft as well as its designation. James announced that the Air Force will be taking suggestions from service members for the official name of the bomber. The B-21 designation, she said, was in recognition of the LRS-B as the first bomber of the 21st century.
“This aircraft represents the future for our Airmen," James said. “The Airman who submits the selected name will help me announce it at the conference this fall (the Air & Space Conference in September)."

At first glance, maybe it should be named the "Deja Vu." The B-21 appears to bear a strong resemblance to the last bomber that Northrop Grumman built, the B-2 Spirit that was designed during the Cold War and introduced in 1997. The B-2 was a moonshot project for its time. Its high cost ($44.7 billion overall) and the end of the Cold War led to a dramatic reduction in the number built—from an original order of 132 to a final total of 21.

The LRS-B program, on the other hand, was intended to be based on tried-and-true tech, not a moonshot. The goal was to embrace innovation to reduce the overall development cost of the bomber. James explained that this is why the B-21 looks so much like its predecessor. "The B-21 has been designed from the beginning based on a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology,” she said.

That decision may help control costs, but they're still substantial. The initial development contract, to finalize the design and deliver testing prototypes, is for $21 billion. Each of the planned 100 aircraft will cost as much as $550 million when production is underway. While 1990 dollars are not mid-2020 dollars—the time frame when the first B-21s are supposed to be ready for duty—a little math adds up the overall cost of the LRS-B to exceed that of the B-2 program even if the aircraft are delivered at the $511 million unit cost Northrop estimated in its bid.

The Air Force's commitment to the B-21 at least in part is responsible for the budget plans submitted to Congress earlier in February. Those plans reduce the number of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters the Air Force will purchase over the next decade to help fund the bomber program.

Meet America’s next top bomber—the B-21 | Ars Technica

 

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