The folks at Northrop Grumman have offered us another glimpse on the progress of the super-secret B-21 Raider stealth bomber. It isn't much of a glimpse but new photos were released to the press this week.We also learned a few things about the US $692 million aircraft, which is being flight-tested at Edwards Air Force Base after its first flight from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale on November 10, 2023.Earlier this month, Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s Service Acquisition Executive, provided a rare update on the B-21’s status during his testimony to the Senate Committee on Armed Services about Air Force modernization, TheAviationist.com reported.When asked about the air leg of the nuclear triad, which includes the B-21 and the Long-Range Stand-Off nuclear missile, Hunter stated, “We are in the flight test program, the flight test program is proceeding well.” The B-21 flew again on January 17, 2024, and subsequent flights were rumoured to have occurred in late March and early April, with the a recent confirmed flight on April 4, 2024.“We are working our way through the test objectives that we have for the platform, and I’m encouraged with how that’s progressing,” Hunter said, adding that significant milestones are expected this year.Hunter did not go into further details, nor did he talk about the aircraft's rumoured anti-gravitic leading edge. That continues to be one of America's closely guarded secrets and likely won't be handed down to commercial aviation anytime soon, if ever.The B-21 program has heavily utilized advanced digital design tools, which Northrop Grumman claims have been crucial in identifying and correcting errors early in the design process, the report said. This digital approach, along with disciplined requirement setting and the use of mature technologies, has contributed to a relatively short timeline in getting the B-21 airborne..Eventually the Air Force might limit the acquisition to the planned 100 B-21 Raiders, as newer technologies could emerge by the time these bombers are delivered.The B-21 is a long-range, highly survivable, penetrating strike stealth bomber set to gradually replace the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers. According to the U.S. Air Force, it will significantly contribute to national security objectives and reassure U.S. allies and partners worldwide, the report said.It is expected to enter service in the mid-2020s — an ambitious target, to say the least.The Raider is set to become the cornerstone of the air force’s bomber fleet, capable of both conventional and nuclear missions, and will eventually replace the current fleet of B-52Hs, B-2As, and B-1Bs.Ironically, it will face the new world in the 2030s, with a familiar wingman — none other than 75 B-52Js.An aircraft that first flew on April 15, 1952.Nicknamed the "BUFF" — Big Ugly Fat (Expletive) — the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. A total of 744 B-52s were built in all, with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October 1962. Yet, it is still flying, keeping America safe from enemy threats.From the 1950s through the late 1960s, Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, a hard driving taskmaster, instituted a policy of keeping Strategic Air Command's B-52s in the air 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.During Operation Linebacker II, 741 B-52 sorties were dispatched to bomb North Vietnam; 729 completed their missions.B-52s dropped 15,237 tons of ordnance on 18 industrial and 14 military targets (including eight SAM sites.).“The earth shakes first,” Liem Huu Nguyen, a former air traffic controller told the Los Angeles Times.Nguyen, whose village, about 50 miles from Hue, was leveled by B-52s in 1972, added: “The sounds come after. I never saw the planes.”Other survivors described it as "apocalyptic" and complete "terror."When flown in a pair of cells — or a group of three B-52s in formation — and loaded with 1,000-pound bombs, the bombers can leave behind a swath of destruction a mile long and a half mile wide.During Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces.Essentially, one lone B-52 can carry out the destruction of a couple dozen Hiroshimas, an impact of apocalyptic proportions.It is also highly effective when used for ocean surveillance — in two hours, two B-52s can monitor 140,000 square miles (364,000 square kilometres) of ocean surface.The use of aerial refueling gives the B-52 a range limited only by aircrew endurance. It has an unrefueled combat range in excess of 8,800 miles (14,080 kilometres.)Only the H model is still in the Air Force inventory and is assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota, and the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.Once they receive their newer, more efficient Rolls-Royce F130 engines, B-52Hs will become B-52Js.One of the improved weapons the B-52 was supposed to get was the hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW,) but in the 2024 budget, the Air Force said it’s moving to “close out” the program and shift its emphasis to the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM.)It will also be equipped with the Raytheon AN/APG-79, an active, electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar used on the Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported..Besides a dramatic improvement in maintainability, the AESA will add significant new capabilities in search, ground mapping and electronic warfare.The new radar’s physical footprint is also much smaller than the system it replaces, creating growth capacity in the front of the aircraft. The B-52’s signature nose-mounted electro-optical blisters will be removed and a new radome installed with the new radar.Along with the new Rolls-Royce F130 engines, upgrades include new engine struts and nacelles, a new electrical power generation system, cockpit displays, brakes and ejection seats.On the funding front, the Air Force is asking for $3 billion in B-52 procurement across the future years defence plan, starting with a modest $65.82 million in 2024 but ramping up to over $1.1 billion each in 2027 and 2028.The BUFF also gained fame in Hollywood, notably in the classic 1964 Cold War film “Dr. Strangelove,” where a rogue Air Force Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper (played by actor Sterling Hayden), sends an entire fleet of bombers to attack Russia, on the basis of “Wing Attack Plan R.”And in 1966, famed Hollywood actor and World War II veteran Air Force Reserve Brig. Gen. Jimmy Stewart, flew his final combat mission on board a B-52 over Vietnam — a 12 hour, 50 minute “Arc Light” bombing mission with the 736th Bombardment Squadron, 454th Bombardment Wing.What’s it like to fly the BUFF?Well, for starters, the Cold War-era ship is far older than its pilots.Operating the B-52 is like “flying a museum,” said one pilot at Barksdale AFB. "It’s a brick — I would say it’s like wrestling.”The most challenging maneuver, he said, is precisely lining the aircraft up with a tanker in the sky to accept more fuel. “At the end of air refuelling, you’re literally sweating.”The plane may be large — its 185-foot wingspan and 159-foot length make it bigger than a 737, though smaller than a 747 — but the space for the crew is relatively cozy.Behind and below the cockpit is a small submarine-like compartment, sometimes illuminated in red, where two others sit: a radar navigator and an aircraft navigator.If anything happens that requires an airborne evacuation from the jet, ejection seats blast downwards rather than upwards, which is only safe if the plane is more than 250 feet off the deck.And right behind that, is a urinal. Imodium helps, the pilots say.
