Air Force Ramps Up Spending on Next-Generation Stealth Bomber

[Sherman A1]

The Air Force awarded a $108 million deal Wednesday to a defense contractor to start acquiring parts for the B-21 Raider program -- the upcoming fleet of long-range strike bombers that will soon consume a major portion of the service's budget.

The B-21 Raider project is projected to cost the Air Force $5 billion next year, including $3.25 billion for research and development. That's the largest aircraft research project the Air Force has in the works, and a significant portion of its roughly $169.5 billion proposed budget for fiscal 2023.

Most details about the program are shielded by a thick layer of classification as the Pentagon works to ensure the bombers and their advanced stealth capabilities can surprise potential foes, with only general details about production and cost publicly revealed as part of the budgeting process.

In total, at least 100 of the B-21 aircraft are scheduled to be produced. They are expected to be operational by the mid-2020s and will be capable of carrying conventional and nuclear munitions.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/04/08/air-force-ramps-spending-next-generation-stealth-bomber.html

[edhopper]

1. comparison

[hunter]

2. What's the point of manned aircraft anymore?

Modern technology is capable of building autonomous aircraft capable of evasive or offensive maneuvers that would incapacitate or kill any human occupants.

Of course these aircraft may already have this capability....

"I'm sorry lieutenant, I can't let you do that. This mission, you understand, is more important than the life of one man."

Airplane evades enemy defenses, delivers payload, turning pilot into bloody road kill.

w

[Celerity]

3. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

What's the point of manned aircraft anymore?

[hunter]

4. As a money laundering scheme for corporate executives and politicians...

... it's not terribly efficient.

Of course the Russian way, in which everyone takes a cut, from Putin on down to the lowliest officers selling a few liters of fuel or spare parts on the side, severely erodes a nation's military capabilities.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. The point is to send money to Lockheed

Money by the boxcar load.

[EX500rider]

8. "What's the point of manned aircraft anymore?"

Because with nuclear bombers you want a human in the loop till the bomb is dropped.

This will be a part of our nuclear triad and the part that can turn back or switch targets even in a communications blackout that might happen after our satellites get knocked down. At that point you can't talk to a unmanned craft and it can't switch targets or abort the run, plus giving AI's the power to drop nuclear bombs is a big step on the road to "The Terminator" Skynet.

[uponit7771]

5. why not stealth cruise missiles?

[leftstreet]

7. Ah, this is why we can't have healthcare

Wouldn't it be great if the military only got partial subsidizing? They could purchase differing levels of weaponry plans, or find themselves using GoFundMe to make their copays.

What a complete abomination

[48656c6c6f20]

9. Why? We obviously won't use them

Because Pootin would use nukes. So what's the point?

[EX500rider]

10. All the complaints about this seem to forget we have Russia threatening nuclear war

And the last B-52 rolled of the assembly line in 1962, older then the pilots.
The B-2's are 20+ years old and we only have 20 or so of them.
With a little warning bombers are more survivable then the ICBM's bases which are static and targetable.
B-21's will keep the nuclear triad healthy and lethal.