The First Two B-21 Stealth Bombers Are Now Ready For Testing
The first two examples of the advanced stealth bombers will now undergo ground testing before their planned first flight next year.
By Thomas Newdick June 9, 2021
The War Zone
The modernization of the U.S. Air Force’s bomber branch is gathering pace, with the news that the first two examples of the so-far highly secretive Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber have been completed. As the service prepares to start testing the two new flying-wing bombers, it has also confirmed that it has no plans to retire additional examples of its aging B-1Bs until deliveries of the Raider begin, scheduled for some time in the mid-2020s, at the earliest. That reflects wider concerns in the service about whether it actually has enough bombers in its current fleet to deal with the kinds of high-end threats that it could face today.
The latest progress updates on the B-21 program, and the bomber force at large, came during a House Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, during which Darlene Costello, the Air Force’s Assistant Secretary of the Air Force Acquisition, Technology & Logistics, revealed that the first two B-21s have now been completed at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. A first flight was originally planned for December of this year, though there have long been concerns that this could get pushed back and earlier this year it was confirmed the Air Force now expects the rollout of the aircraft in early 2022. It would then make its first flight in the middle of the same year. In the meantime, the Air Force has not said what exactly it will be doing with the two brand-new B-21s, but there will surely be extensive ground tests as well as simulations.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/41007/the-first-two-b-21-stealth-bombers-are-now-ready-for-testing
