US Air Force's new B-21 Raider "flying wing" bomber takes first flight

[DadSmith]

US Air Force's new B-21 Raider "flying wing" bomber takes first flight - Reuters witness

(Reuters) -The U.S. Air Force's B-21 "Raider" bomber shaped like a flying wing took its first flight on Friday, the next step in rolling out a new fleet of long-range nuclear-capable stealth bombers built by Northrop Grumman, according to a Reuters witness. The B-21 left Northrop's facility at...

news.yahoo.com

 

[erasure]

In December 2022, the cost of a B-21 aircraft was estimated to be $700 million.[48] At the time, Air Force officials estimated that they would spend at least $203 billion over 30 years to develop, purchase, and operate a fleet of 100 B-21s.[35]

Social Security disability average monthly payment, 2023: $1483 monthly or, 17,796 annual.

39,334 homeless Americans could be housed, clothed and fed for one year, for the cost of one of these giant piles of ****.

 

[HoughMade]

Much, much less expensive than the B-2.

The idea that the defense budget is a reason that disability payments are not higher or homeless people are on the street is without evidentiary support. The gvt. deficit spends all day long every day. If Congress wanted to spend more on those things, it would regardless of the defense budget and regardless of tax revenue.

 

[erasure]

Ahhh, it's fine since the gov't just pulls money out of thin air anyhow, more and more each year. That's comforting. I'm sure nothing can go wrong.

 

[oze]

US Air Force's new B-21 Raider "flying wing" bomber takes first flight - Reuters witness

(Reuters) -The U.S. Air Force's B-21 "Raider" bomber shaped like a flying wing took its first flight on Friday, the next step in rolling out a new fleet of long-range nuclear-capable stealth bombers built by Northrop Grumman, according to a Reuters witness. The B-21 left Northrop's facility at...

news.yahoo.com

Bad-assed!

 

[Alamo]

 

[KellyinAvon]

Anybody hear how many bombs this carries? It is a bomber after all…

 

[Alamo]

Anybody hear how many bombs this carries? It is a bomber after all…

I haven’t seen any definitive with list of weapon loads, but my understanding is it carries about half the payload weight of the B-2‘s 60K lbs. B-21 is smaller than the B-2. Having said that, with the B-21 and F-35 in mind, USAF has spent a lot of time developing smaller bombs and missiles with the same amount of bang as the previous generations, and with better precision. Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) is one such a project. It’s a smart glide bomb, and four of them can fit into the space of a 2000lb bomb.

Fun factoid: The B-21 has the tail that the B-2 was supposed to have. The B-2 tail was supposed to come to a single point like on the B-21, but it experienced some kind of control issues in testing, so they went to the sawtooth pattern to provide more control surfaces.

 

[printcraft]

Anybody hear how many bombs this carries? It is a bomber after all…

Probably use it for close air support to replace the A-10...