![]() In other words, it can gather and relay information to friendly aircraft, satellites, radars and more, and it is also an offensive weapon, able to destroy targets within its range. The B-21 fits into this new strategy network perfectly, able to gather intelligence about a potential enemy or area and to carry out a strike. ![]() What the Air Force, and the US military as a whole, have been working to build is a powerful, distributed network of long-range sensors and strike platforms that transmit and share vast amounts of data about the enemy they are fighting. While stealth is a chief attribute, it is by no means the B-21’s only quality. A hundred aircraft have initially been slated for production with that figure likely to rise if costs can be kept down. Cheaper planes are more likely to be bought in higher numbers. The B-2 was horrendously expensive to keep airworthy and the B-21 will greatly lower the toll in money and man-hours needed in its upkeep. It is, however, significantly cheaper, both to buy and maintain. It is not particularly fast – designed to fly at high subsonic speeds – and it is not the quantum leap the B-2 stealth bomber was when it was first introduced in 1988. The airframe is slightly smaller than the B-2: its payload – the amount of ordinance, bombs and missiles it can carry – is almost halved. The B-21 Raider clearly draws a lot of its designs from its predecessor, such as the flying wing concept with its engines embedded and configured to efficiently reduce its radar signature. The programme has been highly classified and Northrop Grumman has released few details about the project, but some information has trickled out in published reports. So what makes its successor, the B-21, so special? More of the same? Undetected, the B-2 can already destroy high-value targets deep in enemy territory with little to no warning. This allowed the aircraft to conduct long-range strike missions in highly-defended areas with a good chance of surviving the mission, something other bombers, like the B-1 and the venerable B-52 would have little chance of succeeding at. The advanced materials coating the aircraft, combined with the shape of the airframe and engine inlets, meant its radar signature was minute, rendering it virtually “invisible” to radar. The 34-year-old B-2 Spirit was a generation ahead of its time. ![]() Northrop Grumman, which has been developing the bomber, appears to have learned from lessons that befell previous high-profile programmes like the F-35 and the B-2 bombers. Remarkably for a large weapons programme, the B-21 has come in on time and reportedly within the $25.1bn budget the US Air Force allocated it in 2010. The next-generation stealthy long-range strategic bomber is designed to eventually replace the ageing B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit aircraft and become the backbone of the US Air Force’s bomber fleet. The B-21 Raider is expected to be shown to the world Friday. For the first time in more than 30 years, the United States Air Force is unveiling a new stealth bomber.
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