We Need to Double the Production Rate of the B-21
By Robert Peters & Shawn Barnes
June 21, 2025
The Air Force’s newest strategic bomber, the B-21 Raider, is a technological marvel many years in the making. It builds on decades of stealth technology and provides vital long-range, deep-strike capability necessary to deter adversaries for the next several decades.
That’s the good news. The bad news: we aren’t producing as many of them as quickly as we should.
Given the appropriate secrecy surrounding the program, we don’t know the current B-21 inventory or production rate. However, the Air Force has stated it needs at least 100 aircraft and that it expects to procure 10 aircraft per year once in full-rate production. At best, the nation is unlikely to have even 100 aircraft until the late 2030s. This is both too little and too late.
The nation needs a second production facility for the B-21, regardless of the final number of aircraft to be procured. The Defense Department should set a production rate of 20 aircraft per year. This demand signal will allow the B-21’s producer, Northrop Grumman, to build a second production plant. Although the cost of building a second facility is likely to approach $800M, the return on investment is extraordinarily high.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2025/06/21/we_need_to_double_the_production_rate_of_the_b-21_1117782.html
