WASHINGTON — The B-21 Raider is now in production, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief said Monday evening.
William LaPlante, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said in a press release to reporters that he approved low-rate production for the Northrop Grumman-made stealth bomber last fall after observing the outcomes of its ground and flight tests. LaPlante also said the B-21 team’s “mature plans for manufacturing” contributed to his decision to maneuver forward on production.
“Considered one of the important thing attributes of this program has been designing for production from the beginning — and at scale — to offer a reputable deterrent to adversaries,” LaPlante said. “In the event you don’t produce and field to warfighters at scale, the aptitude doesn’t really matter.”
The Air Force plans to begin fielding a fleet of not less than 100 B-21 Raiders, with the primary entering service within the mid-2020s. The Raider is planned to eventually replace the aging B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit sometime within the 2030s, and make up a part of a planned two-bomber fleet together with 76 upgraded B-52J Stratofortresses.
The Raider, which has been known as a sixth-generation bomber, is designed to make use of its stealth capabilities to perform penetrating deep strike missions against advanced adversaries, and carry each conventional and nuclear weapons.
The Air Force and Northrop Grumman rolled out the primary B-21 in a heavily publicized ceremony at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, in December 2022. Testing on that initial B-21, nicknamed Cerberus, continued at Plant 42 throughout much of 2023 until it carried out its first flight, to Edwards Air Force Base in California, in November.
Flight testing of the B-21 has continued at Edwards since then, including taxiing, ground tests and flying operations. The Air Force Test Center and the 412th Test Wing have led the B-21′s test campaign.
Northrop Grumman has built or is within the strategy of constructing not less than six test B-21s, including the primary one.
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office is accountable for the B-21′s acquisition program, and set an unusual strategy that features constructing those test aircraft as near a production model as possible. Which means that the test B-21s are built using the identical manufacturing processes and tooling as production bombers. A defense official said within the Pentagon’s statement this approach, which differs from the standard approach to flight prototyping, allowed production to begin more quickly than usual.
The defense official said the Air Force has worked with Northrop Grumman to create a “digital ecosystem” for the B-21 throughout its lifecycle.
“The engineering and manufacturing data used on the production line might be delivered with the aircraft and combined with modern collaboration and maintenance tools to make the B-21 inexpensive to purchase, fly and sustain at scale,” the official said.
The B-21 program is predicted to cost $203 billion over 30 years, and every bomber has an expected average procurement cost of $692 million.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.