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The US Air Force has announced that the first flight of the B-21 will be late. The new stealth bomber will therefore take off for the first time a few months later than planned.
But the first flight should still 2023 take place. Loud Frank KendallSecretary of the Air Force, would basically still be on schedule originally set for the B-21 program.
Reason for delay not known
Kendall was asked by journalists what caused the delay. He didn’t give a clear answer to that. It would have with the internal plans of the Air Force to do and not be a serious problem.
Armament experts are skeptical. The Air Force has been pushing for new aircraft to replace the aging aircraft in the fleet for years. In this case, it’s the iconic one B-2 Spirit, which entered service in 1993. The stealth bomber received the last major update in 1997, and the systems and electronics are now very outdated.
Now, with the B-21, the modern successor is finally at the door and the Air Force allegedly has no time in their plans for the first flight. That sounds unlikely to armaments experts. You guess that here one technical problem or a problem in the supply chain is causing the delay.
Also the manufacturer of the B-21, Northrop Grumman, does not want to give any specific reasons for the delay. Across from Defense News the B-21 program is said to be progressing as planned in terms of cost, schedule and performance. The program would focus on the maturity of the system to provide the best possible conditions for the B-21’s maiden flight and subsequent flight test campaign. According to experts, this could be interpreted to mean that something is still wrong with the systems, which is why the maiden flight had to be postponed.
Learn from the mistakes of the F-35
There are currently 6 B-21s in production at various stages of construction. That seems very little, especially since the commissioning is planned between 2025 and 2027 and the Air Force as a whole 100 pieces want to buy. Kendall also commented on this.
With the B-21 program, one does not want the mistakes of the F-35 repeat. Here there was the problem of concurrency. The development and procurement overlapped. Problems found during testing of the first F-35s had to be subsequently corrected for all F-35s that were already built and ready for delivery or whose production was already too far advanced.
Since 2007, errors have repeatedly been reported that then had to be corrected in machines that had already been produced. Since 2011 have been several start bans issued to all US F-35s because serious bugs needed to be investigated and fixed. In addition, the unit and maintenance costs are much higher than planned.
In 2021, there was public debate about whether the F-35 project as failed should be rated. Even within the Air Force, there were voices from senior officers recommending stopping further development and procurement and instead developing a new sixth-generation stealth jet.
B-21 is to replace B-1 and B-2
The B-21 Raider is a long-range strategic bomber. It has stealth properties and can be armed with conventional or thermonuclear weapons. It should not only replace the B-2 Spirit in the Air Force fleet by 2040, but also the B-1 Lancer. If the program goes well, it is envisaged that the B-21 will also be used over 60 years old B-52 Stratofortress replaced.
Am December 2, 2022 the B-21 was officially presented to the public. Northrop emphasized that the aircraft is modular and has an open system architecture. This should make future upgrades easier. Specifications have not yet been announced. The B-21 is slightly smaller than the B-2 but has a longer range.
The unit price will be on $700 million estimated. The B-21 will be Plant 42 built in California. The B-2 were previously produced there. The first B-21 with the number 001 is in the Edwards Air Force Base, which is 37 kilometers from Plant 42. There it has undergone ground tests over the past few months in preparation for its maiden flight. This first flight will depart from Edwards Base, as will other test flights.
