A spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force announced that the B-21 Raider, the new U.S. stealth bomber developed by the military giant Northrop Grumman, has successfully completed its first test flight. This heavy bomber is equipped with stealth technology and can launch nuclear bombs. It recently completed its first flight in Palmdale, California.
According to the MTI report, an Air Force spokesperson said the test flight is "a critical step toward achieving a long-range, penetrating strike force that can deter aggression and strategic attacks against the United States and its allies and partners."
The B-21 Raider, like its predecessor the B-2 Spirit, uses a V-wing design integrated with the fuselage, but at the same time, its battlefield survivability is better due to the materials used and more advanced technology. According to the plan, 100 B-21s will be produced temporarily, with multiple customized versions, including manually driven and ground-controlled unmanned versions.
The B-21 Raider will be the U.S. Air Force’s first newly developed fighter jet of its kind in more than 30 years. The Raider's predecessor, the B-2 Spirit, first flew in 1989 and was first deployed in combat in Kosovo in 1999. The model was originally planned to produce 135 units, but only 21 were completed, partly due to changes in the geopolitical environment in the early 1990s, and also due to extremely high production costs.
Almost everything about the Raider program is strictly confidential, with the main purpose being to prevent hostile nations from learning about the aircraft's technology and being able to produce similar models - as was the case with the F-35. According to the plan, the U.S. Department of Defense will spend $200 billion on the project over 30 years.