[Llarry]

The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider bomber has been flying now for a year and a half. By September of 2024, three B-21s had been produced and were in testing.

The B-21 is smaller than the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber but has longer range. It is powered by two turbofan engines rather than the four engines of the older bomber. According to Aviation Week and Spece Technology the empty weight is about 70,000 pounds and the max takeoff weight about 180,000 pounds. A single main weapons bay has a capacity of 20,000 pounds of weapons.

Like the B-2 before it, the B-21 is subsonic.

The Air Force plans to first assign the B-21 to Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, which will host the formal training unit as well as two bomb squadrons. A minimum of 100 B-21s is planned and they will replace B-1Bs and B-2As currently in service. (The B-52s will continue in service.)

The cost of this sophisticated stealth bomber is -- as you would guess -- very high. Estimates put the unit cost at $700 million or more for each bomber.

The underwing probe and the trailing wire seen in the photos are test items; the operational aircraft will not have these.

Interestingly, Australia expressed some interest in buying the B-21 and apparently the U.S. was amenable to that. In the end, the Aussies passed.