Photos of the new B-21 Long-Range Strike Bomber have just been revealed by the US Airforce for the general public to view. We can witness this prototype taking flight at the earliest as US Airforce seem to conduct its maiden flight in 2021.
The manufacturer Northrop Grumman along with the U.S Airforce, came out with three new concepts of the stealth bomber, which depicts the NexGen aircraft in multiple military hangers.
The concept pictures that were released by the Airforce on their social media pages portray the B-21 in a hangar at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, and at the Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.
In the previous year, as per the Military.com reports, Airforce declared Ellsworth as the first-ever base for the new stealth bomber B21. Additionally, they stated that the same station would be occupied for the bomber’s first formal training unit.
In the same reports released last year, US Airforce mentioned that the first-ever flight of this aircraft will take place in 2021. Although according to Drive who report that this would be the earliest possible date but it may take much longer to fulfill its desired goal.
The social media post put up by the Airforce explains: “The B-21 Raider is a new bomber being developed to replace the Air Force’s aging B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit aircraft. The B-21 will be a long-range, highly survivable bomber aircraft capable of carrying a variety of mixed conventional munitions or nuclear ordnance. The Air Force plans to procure at least 100 B-21 Stealth Bombers.”
A substantial grant of $21.4 billion was initially awarded to Northrop by the Airforce in 2015. Unfortunately, the total costs contracted through the whole program are expected to be more than double this particular amount exceeding $55 billion. The B21 on its own is expected to cost $600 million, respectively.