Pentagon debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By TARA COPP today

PALMDALE , Calif. (AP) — 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.

As evening fell over the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, 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.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/technology-china-business-air-force-palmdale-761db1dae42616181a2cc63966f43554?utm_source=Connatix&utm_medium=HomePage

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Photo of the new bomber at link.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Been hearing about this thing for days. 700 million! Know what...

rhat kind of money would do if spent on something qorthwhile?

[ColinC]

11. Sounds like a bargain!

Doesn't even show a blip on the overall defense budget that it comes out of. We can probably get rid of far more wasteful projects and expenditures from that budget before scrapping a project that helps maintain our military superiority in the world.

[Turbineguy]

18. They are planning to buy 100 of them

$700,000,000 X 100 + Support and fuel.

or more than 70 Gigabucks to start with.

[EX500rider]

22. Can't use the B-52 forever and we don't have enough B-2's or B-1's nt

[Rebl2]

25. I live

A little way from where some of the B-2 are kept. We see them ( more like hear them after they’ve passed) once in a great while fly over our football stadium. Once in a while they fly over for no reason-usually high in the sky, unlike when they fly over the stadium. I know people complain sometimes because they think they are wasting money and fuel, but I also know they have to get so much flight time in.

[paleotn]

28. Bingo.

B-1's and B-2's are slated for replacement. B-52's still are hard to match as a stand off weapon dispenser.

[EX500rider]

32. The BUFF is OK at a distance or over a non-peer enemy

But penetration missions over near peer would be suicide.

And the airframes are getting too old to last much longer, they are older then their pilots, who would be happy getting on a airliner built in 1962?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

35. Rising concerns of conflict with China...the MIC and its media need another fake foe to justify

it’s monstrous war machines of death? Russia and NK and Iran not cutting it, huh?

840 Billion dollars a year, there better be some real danger to Americas shores!!…wait…

[XorXor]

46. What are your thoughts on China's development of hypersonic missiles?

How about their expanding navy and overall increase in expenditures? China's neighbors seem to disagree that China is just another fake foe.I understand that they spend much less than the US, but they are getting closer every year. Also, due to the difficulties in comparing military expenditures, a simple dollar for dollar comparison doesn't give an accurate picture. There is a youtuber named perun who works as some sort of analyst who gives a good explanation about why this is the case.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

47. Sovereignty.

[XorXor]

48. You're terse response leaves it open to a lot of interpretation

Let me ask it this way. Do you believe the US' development of hypersonic missiles should be criticized? Do you believe that China's development of hypersonic missiles should be criticized?

The US has the F-35 fight jet. There are movements by some to "ground the F-35" because it's a threat to global peace. Do you agree with that stance? China has a very similar jet, the J-31, do you believe that plane should also be grounded because it's a threat to global peace? On twitter #GroundTheF35 has tended. However, there has never been a #GroundTheJ31 hashtag trending. Does this seem like a problem for someone who has the goal to reduce global military spending?

[Alexander Of Assyria]

51. All war machines should be criticized, then returned to the taxpayers! Trick questions?

[XorXor]

59. No, not trick questions.

They were just questions to gain understanding. It seems like the criticism only goes one way. It seems unlikely that there will be any change unless there is similar pressure on all major players to not build up their arms.

[purr-rat beauty]

2. Nice to see...

the MIC is nice and healthy - why don't we the taxpayers get rebates when they don't use these machines of death?

one day this world won't have anything else to pull from the planet just to destroy it and it's inhabitants even more

[ColinC]

12. Before doing that, I think we should refine the wasteful aspects of the Defense budget.

Which would likely create far more productivity and improve the health of the MIC.

[Chainfire]

16. How could you claim it is wasteful? All of that money ends up in the "right" hands.

[DENVERPOPS]

20. Good Call, CF NC

[paleotn]

29. Ask the Ukrainians what they think of your world view.

[EarthFirst]

3. Gotta feed the MIC! nt

[paleotn]

30. OK. Call Putin and Xi and tell the....

the globe is theirs. We can defend democracy with happy thoughts and good vibes.

[XorXor]

40. Not an unreasonable sentiment. The problem is that there has be people pushing the same

in other countries like Russia and China. Until there is a truly global push that is capable of being effective in all the major players, I don't think we'll see much improvement in how humans invest a large amount of our money and intellect. China has been testing their hypersonic missiles a lot this year. We often times talk about the destabilizing effect of missile defense systems of the US & friends, but these hypersonic missiles are just as destabilizing, if not more so.

I guess my point is that the criticism of the military industrial complex typically just goes one way. That's not going to change anything. For real change to be made there has to be well rounded criticism of all the players. This is something that seems to be sorely lacking from any peace movement or anti-military groups.

[republianmushroom]

4. Awesome,

[Midnight Writer]

5. Dammit, TFG said it was invisible. That plane is not invisible. I want to see an invisible plane.

[William769]

14. Watch Wonder Woman.

[denbot]

41. LoL n/t

[COL Mustard]

15. The Colonel is in so you can't see him.

You can only see him when he's out.

[tclambert]

36. Look up in the sky, right behind you! Don't see anything? There you go, an invisible plane.

What you should worry about is the skyful of invisible alien spacecraft.

[Cherokee100]

6. I wonder

I wonder, if Putin got the specifications on this aircraft, from Benedict Donald?

[denbot]

42. So do I. n/t

[mn9driver]

7. These photos could be a scene from Iron Man

Hard to know whether to laugh or cry.

It looks like a B2 with upgrades. I wonder what the price tag is?

[Igel]

21. Yes.

Then again, Schwarzenegger liked like Tiny Tim with "upgrades."

And a dye job.

"Upgrades" covers a lot of ground.

QED is Maxwell with upgrades. Maxwell gets you generators in the '50s. QED gets you your computer.

I think the B-21 exterior is ... weird.

But RAM. I likes me RAM. Cover those revealing joints. And the avionics? Sensors? I haven't seen those, or their specs.

My old computer died in November. There's a $1.5k computer on my desk. My kid's computer, $4.5k and built from components a year ago, is on *his* desk. Yet both look like my 2015 Dell, bought for $900.

What mostly matters is inside the box. Clock/CPU speed, memory. What's not superficiail.

[paleotn]

31. To some degree it is.

The general design works, thus roughly the same setup, but significantly smaller. The RAM (radar absorbent material), however, is a whole new generation. Avionics and other systems are a whole new ballgame as well. Light years ahead of the original B-2's.

As for price, do you remember Tom Cruise's $38M aircraft in 1986? With inflation, that's $107M in 2022 dollars. About the cost of an F-35 today with most of the bells and whistles. And those bells and whistles make the F-35 vastly more lethal than any of the F-14, F-16 and F-15 variants. Off bore targeting (Nose on is no longer necessary. You can target aircraft even behind you.), stealth, and state of the art sensor fusion at a price not much different in real dollars than we were paying for Tomcats and Eagles in 1986. B-21's future price tag per unit are yet to be known, but keep in mind that $38M doesn't go nearly as far as it use to.

[XorXor]

49. Looks like the Northrop YB-49 with upgrades.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49

[Zorro]

8. On a side note

Several women are now or have served as defense contractor CEOs -- Northrop, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin. Looks like that glass ceiling has been shattered in that industry.

[AndyS]

9. I've always thought that the way to approach

stealth would be to build a couple of mock ups, park them on the airfield at Skunkworks so the spy satellites could see them and then have a couple of NSA chase planes fly a course as if they were escorting the "new" bomber. Chase plane pilots could chat back and fourth as if evaluating it's performance. Fly close enough to Russia so the chase planes could be picked up on radar, but absolutely NO bomber! Ya' know, just mess with them a bit.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. This is a cool looking plane

Link to tweet

[tclambert]

37. That front view looks a little like the flying saucer in "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

Gort, Klaatu barada nikto.

[William769]

13. Kind of looks like batman.

[Rebl2]

26. I call them

the bat wing

[IronLionZion]

17. It looks a lot like the B-2 Spirit

not surprising since Northrup Grumman makes both so there is some overlap.

“The B-21 will provide the kind of payload, range and penetrability that our current force of B-1s, B-52s and, to a small degree, B-2s, cannot accomplish.”
https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/air/b-21-raider/b-21-faqs/

[LudwigPastorius]

19. Re: the cockpit won't open...

Sooo...

Is there some kind of ejection system for the crew if the plane starts going down?

Or, are they expected to eat it, because they'll make you wish you were dead anyway if you end up losing one of these babies?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

52. Probably punch out from the bottom of the bomber if it came to that,

a lot of WWII bombers had hatches in the bellies for crews to bail out.

[turbinetree]

23. The radar cross section of this aircraft will now go in for or it already has been done to

be bombarded with the latest radar known and if there is one rivet or one section of the plane that is mismatched, it will pick it up and the stealth will be moot.......if you look at the inlets for the engines they are "more" hidden than the B2 Spirt, that means when the radar beam strikes this part of the aircraft that radar is bouncing all over the inside of those inlets to hide that plane....and it is being reported that the saw tooth trailing edge is not more pronounced like it is on the B2 and the exhaust are more capable to hide this plane besides the paint being used...........

[Aussie105]

24. Straight out of science fiction!

But . . . does it have a toilet, a kitchen, a fridge, a mini-bar?

[sir pball]

33. In all seriousness, probably the first three, yes

If it's expected to fly 24+ hour missions, a place to store food, a way to heat it up, and a place to crap are non-negotiable features.

[tclambert]

38. And coffee maker. If you're gonna fly long missions, the pilot has to have some java.

[JohnnyRingo]

27. I think the Pentagon is understating the cost.

I recall that the Air Force didn't want to deploy the B-2 Stealth because it cost about as much as a nuclear aircraft carrier (about $4bln). That might seem high, but the cost per unit is the total price for development and manufacture divided by the number of examples built. The Air Force doesn't need as many bombers as they do fighters and strike planes.

Perhaps this B-21 shares much of the R&D paid for on the Spirit program, but half a billion for all these bells & whistles seems light.

[XorXor]

39. I guess we'll see. Although, it is smaller and technology has advanced a lot

Perhaps that has lowered the costs a bit. Then again, that usually isn't how it works out with military contracts.

[sir pball]

34. Cool bird, looks like a good B-2 replacement

And when it finally goes out of service in 2060, a B-52 will be waiting to ferry the last crew home

[mahatmakanejeeves]

43. You know, you might be on to something there. NT

[Brother Buzz]

45. The B-52 is like George Washington's axe

The handle has been replaced six times, and the axe head three times, but it's still George Washington's axe.

[Magoo48]

44. Beat, beat, beat the fucking war drums.

Feed the MIC.
Starving children step aside.

War Is a Racket. Yet, beat the fucking war drums.

[electric_blue68]

50. Until Russia, and China start demilitarizing we have to stay cautious. I'm Darn Sure the Budget...

for The Military, and Defense could get some serious trimming if examined very carefully!


I'm not talking about paycuts for your regular, special, MASH, JAG, and specialists soldiers.
Maybe for some desk bound positions BUT
IDK enough to make even a real educated opinion about those varied positions - which is why the caveat.

Then take those monies for Education, low income housing, mental health treatments,drug costs, certain compensations for climate change, etc. 👍

[former9thward]

54. People have been saying that for decades.

And it NEVER happens no matter the administration, no matter the Congress. It just keeps on going up. It is completely unsustainable and it continues to stop money for the items you mention and a hundred more.

[Kennah]

53. We never did this with the U2, SR71, F117, et al.

I'm wondering if this is an actual airplane or a wood mockup?

[truthisfreedom]

55. I didn't see anything about payload or range.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

56. Classified, but it has anti-gravity propulsion and can fly without humans onboard!

[hunter]

57. I wonder if this is what the shitstorm with Huawei is about.

Maybe their cell phone tower equipment can see it.

U.S. bans the sale and import of some tech from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE

WASHINGTON — The U.S. is banning the sale of communications equipment made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE and restricting the use of some China-made video surveillance systems, citing an "unacceptable risk" to national security.

The five-member Federal Communications Commission said Friday it has voted unanimously to adopt new rules that will block the importation or sale of certain technology products that pose security risks to U.S. critical infrastructure. It's the latest in a years-long escalation of U.S. restrictions of Chinese technology that began with President Donald Trump and has continued under President Joe Biden's administration.

"The FCC is committed to protecting our national security by ensuring that untrustworthy communications equipment is not authorized for use within our borders, and we are continuing that work here," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, in a prepared statement.

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1139258274/us-ban-tech-china-huawei-zte

[OverBurn]

58. Wish there were better pixs.