The B-21 Raider will be able to virtually strike any target across the globe within a few hours.
The U.S. Air Force’s race to field the world’s first-ever sixth-generation bomber has not been a smooth journey. Earlier this week, it was revealed that the B-21 Raider program saw a whopping 49 percent drop in first-quarter profit. While Northrop Grumman blamed rising manufacturing costs for this differential, the massive financial hit was not the first caused by the stealth bomber program. In fact, last year, Northrop revealed a loss of nearly $1.2 billion. While the recent 49 percent drop in profit amounts to just under $400 million after tax, this figure is still exponentially higher than the manufacturer hoped it would be.
On the earnings call, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden detailed that increases in the cost and quantity of components required to field the initial five low-rate production aircraft are necessary. The process change, according to the CEO, “positions us to ramp to the quantities needed in full rate production. And even … we can ramp beyond the quantities in the program of record, which is something that we and the government decided was important for the optionality to support the scenarios that they have been looking at, to increase the current build rate,”
The B-21 Raider
Northrop was awarded the contract to build the sixth-generation Raider platform sometime last fall. Details surrounding when exactly this arrangement was finalized, how many bombers it covers, and whether any other low-rate initial production aircraft will be constructed remain murky. However, it is understood that the timely arrival of the B-21 platform will be imperative in order to thwart Russia’s and China’s own next-generation stealth bombers.
When the B-21 reaches operational capacity, it is expected to serve as the Air Force’s intelligence collection platform, interceptor, and battle manager aircraft. The first time a B-21 was debuted occurred in 2022 at Northrop’s production facilities in Palmdale, California. As the fruit of the service’s Long-Range Strike Bomber program, the Raider will be able to virtually strike any target across the globe within a few hours. Exact specs surrounding the bomber’s features remain highly classified, but a report by Sandboxx News last year suggested that the Raider’s wingspan could be much smaller than the existing B-2 Spirit bomber’s wingspan. Since possessing a small frame goes hand-in-hand with stealth, this shortened wingspan would bode well for the Air Force’s purposes. In terms of ordnance, the only confirmed weapons that the Raider is set to carry are the B61-12 nuclear gravity bomb and the AGM-181 Long-Range Standoff missile. A wide array of conventional munitions is likely to also be lugged by the stealth bomber.
The Raider may be racking up associated costs, but at least the bomber is reportedly ahead of schedule. Earlier this year, Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican representing Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, revealed on X that the bomber program was “being built ahead of schedule and on budget.”
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has by-lines in many publications, including The National Interest, Jerusalem Post, and Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin. Carlin has over 1,000 articles published over the last several years on various defense issues.
Image: DVIDS.
