Speaking at the 2022 Nuclear Deterrence Summit Feb. 9, Maj. Gen. Jason R. Armagost, the director of operations and communications of the Air Force Global Strike Command, said the B-21 Raider will probably make its first flight in 2022.
He also said that six of the new bombers are in production at the Northrop Grumman facility in Palmdale, Calif., and that some of the bomber’s software has already been validated through digital testing.
“The B-21, going into the future, is going to be our penetrating, get inside the anti-access, area of denial, dual-capable aircraft,” said Armagost, the director of strategic plans, programs, and requirements at AFGSC. “There are now six of those in existence. The rollout will probably be some time this year. I’m not at liberty to give the likely date of that, but [it will be] quickly followed by first flight.”
In September of last year, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said five of the new bombers were in production.
Development of the Raider has been helped by the Air Force embracing digital technologies to speed up the process.
“We are capitalizing on the revolution in digital — models-based systems engineering, open mission systems architecture software,” Armagost said. “As an example, the software for the fuel control system, which is a pretty complex thing, is completely done on an aircraft that hasn’t even flown yet as a test article, because of how we’re able to do models-based systems engineering. And they actually built a fuel systems model and tested the software, and the software is ready to go.”
According to Armagost, digital technologies will be instrumental in the B-21’s future sustainment.
“One of the things that I’m most excited about is the requirements for new systems that haven’t even flown, yet. The fact that there’s a modernization effort built into those already, right?” Armagost said. “So in the B-21, for example, there’s technologies that are explored that we can risk-reduce through other platforms, potentially, and integrate ahead of the aircraft even flying. And so it’s kind of an exciting way to get back to that models-based systems engineering [that] has kind of opened up some possibilities on sustainment, interacting with the environment in ways that are really useful to the future systems.”
Designed and built by Northrop Grumman, the B-21 Raider will be able to deliver conventional and thermonuclear weapons. The bomber is expected to enter service by 2026-2027, and will initially complement the existing bomber force — the B-1 Lancer, B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress, eventually replacing them.
While production is ongoing at the Northrop Grumman Palmdale facility, Air Force testing of the aircraft will take place at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
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