Northrop B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber revealed today

Nforce

ORLANDO, Fla. — The US Air Force secretary unveiled the first official rendering of the new Long Range Strike Bomber and revealed its official designation: the B-21.

In a speech at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium on Feb. 26, Secretary Deborah Lee James shared an artist's concept design of the next-generation bomber, which will be built by Northrop Grumman. She also announced the plane's long-awaited designation, calling it the B-21.

However, the Air Force still has not decided on a name for the new B-21, James said. She called on airmen to send in suggestions.

"So we have an image, we have a designation, but what we don't yet have, we don't yet have a name," James said, "and this is where I'm challenging and I'm calling on every airman today ... to give us your best suggestions for a name for the B-21, America's newest bomber."


While there are no existing prototypes of the aircraft, the artist rendering unveiled Feb. 26 is based on the initial design concept, according to an Air Force statement. The Air Force settled on the B-21 designation as recognition that LRS-B is the first bomber of the 21st century, the statement noted.

James also explained in the statement why the B-21 shares a resemblance to the B-2, also built by Northrop.

“The B-21 has been designed from the beginning based on a set of requirements that allows the use of existing and mature technology,” James said, according to the statement.

Northrop Grumman spokesman Tim Paynter stressed the B-21 bomber's importance to the nation's future in a statement emailed to reporters following James' remarks.

“Northrop Grumman is proud to serve as the prime contractor for the B-21 Bomber, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, to deliver a capability that is vital to our national security," Paynter said. “Any further questions should be directed to the Air Force.”

The Air Force awarded the contract for B-21 engineering, manufacturing and development to Northrop on Oct. 27. The service plans to field the new bomber in the mid-2020s.

http://www.defensenews.com/story/breaking-news/2016/02/26/b-21-bomber-air-force-lrsb/80976160/

BeardySi

Looks vaguely familiar... I can see where they got the designation from.

Nforce

It was always going to look like it's predecessor as the design is proven to minimise radar cross section and IR. Am surprised that it's manned, though.

Shannon757

What has/will happen to the B-2s?

arccosh

unmanned it would have to be fully autonomous, not something you'd want floating around with nukes,
also, if it were controlled remotely, there would have to be some sort of channel to and from the aircraft, meaning RF being produced by the aircraft, which could be tracked, defying the purpose of stealth

arubex

I don't know why they bother to maintain the semblance of a designation 'system'; first they reset the B sequence to '1' in 1968 and now they've jumped back to re-use an allocation from 1937...

http://www.aviastar.org/air/usa/na_xb-21.php

The next in sequence for the Bomber MDS should have been B-3 ( or given rumours that applies to a deep-black project, perhaps B-4 )

My OCD doesn't like this, nor the F-35 ( should be F-24 ).

Tenger

Nforce wrote: »

It was always going to look like it's predecessor as the design is proven to minimise radar cross section and IR. Am surprised that it's manned, though.

I think the above argument about nukes is an issue. However I am sure they will have a remote piloting option inbuilt. Usual US system of 'upgrading' the weapons system after IOC perhaps?

arubex wrote: »

I don't know why they bother to maintain the semblance of a designation 'system'; first they reset the B sequence to '1' in 1968 and now they've jumped back to re-use an allocation from 1937...

The next in sequence for the Bomber MDS should have been B-3 ( or given rumours that applies to a deep-black project, perhaps B-4 )

Marketing bollix. Hence why the new carrier process was called CVX then CVN-21.

Dardania

Wonder what tech will be different with this design this time around -

Carbon fibre well advanced by now for materials.

Low bypass turbofans? Would they need to go supersonic?

IRLConor

Looks more like the B-2.1 than the B-21.