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US to unveil high-tech B-21 stealth bomber


By AFP
Published : 02 Dec 2022 09:58 PM

The US Air Force on Friday will unveilits new B-21 Raider, a high-tech stealth bomber that can carry nuclear andconventional weapons and is designed to be able to fly without a crew onboard.

The B-21 -- which is on track to cost nearly $700 million per plane and isthe first new US bomber in decades -- will gradually replace the B-1 and B-2aircraft, which first flew during the Cold War.

"The B-21 will be the backbone of our future bomber force. It will possessthe range, access and payload to penetrate the most highly-contested threat environments and hold any target around the globe at risk," US Air Force

spokesperson Ann Stefanek told AFP. The first B-21 flight is expected to take place next year, and the Air Forceplans to buy at least 100 of the aircraft, Stefanek said. Manufacturer Northrop Grumman said six of the planes are 

currently indifferent stages of assembly and testing at its facility in Palmdale,California, where the unveiling will take place.

Many specifics of the aircraft are being kept under wraps, but the planeshould offer significant advances over existing bombers in the US fleet.

Among the new capabilities offered by the B-21 is the potential for uncrewed

flight. Stefanek said the aircraft is "provisioned for the possibility, butthere has been no decision to fly without a crew."

- 'Designed to evolve' -

The plane also features an "open architecture," which is meant to alloweasier and quicker upgrades.

Amy Nelson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the B-21is "designed to evolve."

"The 'open architecture' allows for the future integration of improvedsoftware (including for autonomy) so the aircraft doesn't become obsolete asquickly," she said.

"The B-21 is much fancier than its predecessors -- truly modern. Not only isit dual-capable (unlike the B-2), which means it can launch nuclear orconventionally armed missiles, it can launch long- and short-range missiles,"Nelson added.

Like the F-22 and F-35 warplanes, the B-21 will feature stealth technology,which minimizes an aircraft's signature through both its shape and thematerials it is constructed from, making it harder for adversaries to detect.

The technology has been around for decades, but Northrop said the plane will

feature the "next generation of stealth" and that it is employing unspecified

"new manufacturing techniques and materials" on the B-21.

The "Raider" portion of the aircraft's name honors the 1942 US bomber raid on

Tokyo led by lieutenant colonel James Doolittle -- the first American strikeon Japan's homeland following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor theprevious year.