What is the b-21?

The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber since the B-2 Spirit of the 1990s. Northrop Grumman won the Long Range Strike Bomber contract in October 2015, the aircraft was unveiled at Palmdale, California, on 2 December 2022, and the first example flew from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base on 10 November 2023. The name honours the Doolittle Raiders of 1942. Externally it resembles a smaller B-2: a tailless flying wing with buried engines, but with a deeper centre section, a simpler trailing edge and flush inlets intended to cut the radar and infrared signatures further.

The Air Force describes it as a dual-capable penetrating bomber: able to fly through modern air defences and deliver either conventional weapons or the B61-12 nuclear bomb and the future Long Range Standoff missile. It has a crew of two, although the design allows an uncrewed mode later. Range and payload remain classified; officially the aircraft is smaller than the B-2 and carries less, trading size for lower cost and greater numbers. The programme's guiding idea is an open mission-systems architecture, so that sensors, software and weapons can be swapped without rebuilding the airframe.

The service plans at least 100 aircraft and has discussed a larger fleet, with Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota as the first operational and training base. The average unit cost was capped at 550 million dollars in 2010 terms, close to 700 million today (as of September 2026). Test aircraft have flown at Edwards since 2023, low-rate production is under way, and the B-21 should begin replacing the B-1B and B-2 in the second half of this decade, leaving the B-52 as the only other bomber in the fleet.