One of the most secretive military projects of recent years, the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, is expected to finally be unveiled in December, confirming previous information that pointed to its appearance at the end of the year.
Andrew Hunter, Assistant Secretary for Acquisitions for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) revealed this Tuesday during the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference that the bomber will be unveiled at Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. first week of December.
The flying wing aircraft will be the most advanced air strike vector of the USAF and will replace the old B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit in the mission to launch nuclear missiles, among other weapons.
The B-21 is being developed by Northrop Grumman, which defeated the Boeing and Lockheed Martin partnership in 2015. The stealth bomber had only illustrations released, some of which have significant differences in certain parts such as windows.
It is estimated that the Raider will be a little smaller than the B-2, but with a much superior performance and a very low operating cost compared to the first stealth bomber ever created and the most expensive aircraft in history.
Currently, Northrop Grumman has six B-21s in production, the first of which has almost been completed and has been in ground tests since the beginning of the year.
The first flight of the B-21 Raider is scheduled for 2023 and the Air Force plans to order at least 100 of them to modernize its fleet of strategic bombers.
Via Breaking Defense
