B-21 Raider: Here's Everything We Know

The United States Air Force's fleet of bombers will go through its most extreme makeover yet in the coming decades, as the B-21 Raider is finally arriving. Aiming to replace the current, active B-2 Spirit and B-1B Lancer bombers, the brand new design clearly draws inspiration from the B-2 and did degrade its legendary stealth philosophy with new technologies. This ultimately won it a 100-unit contract, enough to revamp the entire bomber fleet. The Raider is still highly classified and it's very difficult to get anything substantial on it. But according to existing accounts, it will retain or even improve upon the B-2's endurance, it will most certainly outperform its stealth capabilities, it won't be as environmentally sensitive, and unlike the Spirit, the Raider's cost performance actually won't cripple the national economy. Which is a plus. In order to get to this point, though, the engineers at Northrop Grumman had to overhaul the B-2 in its entirety. 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Head to squarespace.com slash megaprojects for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code MEGAPROJECTS to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Back to today's episode. The current state of the US bomber fleet At the time of recording, the United States operates roughly 136 bombers, spread across three aircraft types. Northrop's B-2 Spirit, the legendary stealth bomber, comprises 19 aircraft in the fleet. Rockwell's B-1B Lancer designs account for 45 bombers, and the remaining 72 bombers are, of course, Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress, the longest serving active bomber in the world, which will seemingly outlive all of us. It has now been 40 years since the Lancer was introduced into service, almost 30 years since the B-2 Spirit was introduced, and a whopping 71 years since the Stratofortress has been ripping the skies apart. This, however, is not as big of a problem as it may sound. Combat aircraft are built to last, and this is especially true for bombers. There's a reason the Stratofortress is still in service, and it's not because it's particularly pretty. But more on that in another video that we are currently working on. In car terms, the Spirit and the Lancer are 2003 Corollas that were upgraded with modern technology as much as the basic framework allows. Sure, they aren't new, but they're serviceable, up-to-date, and they get the job done. The Stratofortress can be thought of as a really old Toyota Land Cruiser 80 that was taken care of and maintained very well. None of these cars are bad. None of them are obsolete. But there are two things to keep in mind when we're discussing military procurement. First of all, if you're planning for the now, or for the next year or two, you're already technologically behind. All the greatest military designs that we refer to as benchmarks to this day, such as the B2 Spirit or the M1 Abrams main battle tank, were developed with new, potentially revolutionary technologies in an attempt to streamline those technologies, develop them en masse, and stay a step ahead of the enemy. When it comes to technologies developed during the Cold War, which was an era of booming defense production, the West wasn't waiting for the East to develop technology A so that they could answer with technology B. Instead, both the West and the East assumed that the other side was going to develop technology B in response to their own technology A, so they developed technology C. This Cold War technological competition was particularly unlucky for both the F-22 and the B2 Spirit, as each respective aircraft was designed to one-up the Soviet Union's aerial capabilities and the USSR collapsed before either bird had a chance to take to the skies. Nevertheless, the technological battle is one of the most important aspects of an arms race, just clarifying that in case you thought it was a literal race in which competitors run with their arms instead of their legs. The second thing one has to keep in mind when it comes to long-term military planning is a multitude of questions such as what kind of capabilities are we looking for out of this technology we're developing, how much will it cost to develop it, how big of a fleet do we need, and how much will mass production cost. Then there are other questions like what's the realistic lifespan of the technology and how much will that cost, how much will we spend on constant upgrades and updates, and finally, is all of this really necessary? So with all of that in mind, imagine this scenario. Let's say that you own two 2003 Corollas and one really, really old Land Cruiser, and you're put in a situation where you know that you might, in the next 10-15 years, be forced to take part in a cross-country race. The race rules allow you to switch cars mid-race, the route will take you through cities, highways, and the harshest terrain imaginable, and it's going to last for a very, very long time. Now, here's the thing. You can't opt out of this race. The race is an unavoidable event that may or may not materialize in your future. It's entirely possible that you'll live your entire life without ever taking part in the race. However, if the race is thrust upon you and you lose, you will die a horrible death. So the stakes are quite high. In that situation, would you rely on your two Corollas and your Land Cruiser, or would you replace them with something brand new? Something capable of replicating and improving upon the abilities of those vehicles, but with much better longevity and serviceability, and in greater numbers? Well, the answer to the United States is, of course, the latter. The long-term plan is to replace all three bombers with the B-21 Raider and any subsequent bombers that the country may develop in the future. The goal of the B-21 is to retain the United States' strategic bombing capabilities, which includes nuclear capability, eventually replace the entire existing fleet of bombers, improve existing technologies, particularly the ones introduced with the B-2 Spirit, make those technologies mainstream, but, most importantly, make the entire procurement program financially sound. When talking about the Long Range Strike Bomber Program in 2009, which is the program that gave birth to the B-21 Raider, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that it's imperative to avoid the mistakes made with the B-2. Specifying that, quote, "...by the time the research, development, and requirements processes ran their course, the aircraft, despite its great capability, turned out to be so expensive — two billion dollars each in the case of the B-2 — that less than one-sixth of the planned 132 was ever built. We must avoid a situation in which the loss of even one aircraft, by accident or in combat, results in a loss of a significant portion of the fleet — a national disaster akin to the sinking of a capital ship. This scenario raises our costs of action and shrinks our strategic options when we should be looking to the kind of weapons system that limit the cost of action and expand our options." End quote. So, in 2015, the B-21 designation was formally attributed to the aircraft and, in 2022, the Air Force estimated that the American taxpayer would pay $203 billion over the course of three decades to develop, produce, and, most importantly, operate a fleet of 100 Raiders. The development costs alone run to about $70 billion, with the production price per aircraft being roughly $700 million. In comparison, the price of each B-2 Spirit was almost $740 million in 1997, which is more than $1.3 billion today, but the total development and production costs were comparatively cheaper than the B-21's costs at about $90 billion when adjusted for inflation. This, however, doesn't account for lifelong maintenance costs, nor does it include the B-2's notoriously high per-hour flight operation costs. All in all, the B-21 is a big investment. But one that will actually loosen the tight reins on the federal budget while improving the Air Force's bombing capabilities. And here's how. B-21 Raider Design and Capabilities Now, in case you haven't realized it from the many images of the B-21 and B-2 shown in the video at this point, the two designs are really quite similar. Both are flying wing designs, meaning that there's no fuselage or tail, and they both utilize the lambda wing design, which is a stealth-focused design that minimizes the aircraft's radar cross-section. Stealth is the defining feature of this aircraft, which we'll talk about extensively throughout the video, but more on that later. The Raider is, however, notably smaller than the B-2, at a length of 54 feet or 16 meters and a wingspan of around 150 feet or 45.5 meters. The exact dimensions haven't been made public, so this information is possibly off by a few feet. The B-2 has a wingspan of 172 feet or 52.4 meters and a length of 69 feet or 21 meters, and since it's a larger aircraft, it's obviously easier to detect. Aside from being smaller, it's also much, much lighter than the B-2, which weighs 158,000 pounds or just under 72 metric tons. The B-21 is estimated to weigh just 32 tons or 70,000 pounds. This also means that it can't carry as much armament as the B-2, which can take off with a maximum weight of 170 tons or 376,000 pounds. The Raider can only take off with less than half of that, at 180,000 pounds or just over 81.5 tons. Unofficially, the B-21 will be able to deliver a 13 ton or 30,000 pound payload. The B-2 has once delivered a 27 ton or 60,000 pound payload. So you might be wondering, it's the future, why the downgrade? Well, the purpose of the B-21 was never to match the B-2's weapons capabilities. The B-2 was designed for heavy saturation strikes, which is why it can, for example, carry two 30,000 pound massive guided bombs. The Raider can't do that. But unlike the B-2, it's going to be much easier to keep in an operational state. The B-2 requires around 60 hours of maintenance for every hour of flight on average. This means that once the pilot's landed after a mission, you can pretty much count on it being unavailable for the following few weeks, if not months. The Spirit's radar-absorbing coating, which, in combination with other stealth-focused engineering marvels, makes its radar cross-section no bigger than that of a small bird in spite of its size, requires meticulous care. The B-2, for example, must be kept in air-conditioned and climate-controlled hangars. And there are only a handful of those, not only in the USA, but on the planet. Because of these requirements and how expensive it is to run and maintain, the B-2 wasn't deployed as much as it ideally should have been. This is why the B-2 had to fly all the way from Missouri to Afghanistan and back for a bombing mission in the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. Closer airbases simply couldn't keep the Spirit safe and unharmed. This is, by the way, one of the longest bombing missions ever. The more you know. Conversely, the B-21 can be operated out of just about any overseas base, just like the Lancer and the Stratofortress. The details aren't exactly known, but according to Military Watch Magazine, the B-21's stealth capabilities are not as environmentally dependent as those of the B-2, and the aircraft is simply not as sensitive. Second, there's no need for a bomber capable of carrying an ungodly amount of weapons if you can launch a dozen of them in a coordinated attack. Only 21 B-2 bombers were ever built, one of which famously crashed in 2008, and another one is retiring, with the United States operating 19 of them at the time. Thanks to their operation and maintenance costs, as well as their insanely demanding storage requirements, it was never an option to launch a dozen of them at the same target. This was, fortunately, never necessary, but even if it had been, it's difficult to see it happening. The story with the Raider is the exact opposite. It carries a smaller payload, yep, but at least a hundred of them will be built, if not twice that many, and they'll be cheaper to operate, readily available at any time, and they will perform better in terms of stealth, which means that the option of scrambling more than one at a time is very real. According to the latest data available, the B-21 Raider will also boast a better range when compared to the B-2. The B-2 has a range of about 6,900 miles, or 11,000 kilometers, while the B-21's range is assumed to be at least 6,500 miles, or around 12,000 kilometers. Once again, the word assumed is key here because this is a highly secretive project and sending a spy into the Department of Defense is not exactly in our budget here at Megaprojects. Also, we don't want to go to prison forever. It should also be noted that the ranges aren't as important as ease of maintenance and operability, because both the B-2 and the B-21 are capable of mid-air refueling, and the B-2 is quite famous for its extremely long range trips. It can fly for 12,000 miles, or 19,000 kilometers, with a single refuel, and on top of that earlier Missouri-Afghanistan-Missouri example, I'll have you know that in 2017, a pair of B-2s bombed an ISIS training camp in Libya. Each bomber was in the air for 33 hours, and several refuelings were necessary to pull the mission off. There's no reason to think that the B-21's endurance will be any worse. If anything, it will probably be better thanks to its fuel efficiency. The B-2 is powered by four General Electric F-119 turbofans for a total of 308 kilonewtons of thrust, which gives it a thrust-to-weight ratio of about 0.442 when empty, and about 0.185 at maximum take-off weight. The B-21, which is, once again, much lighter, is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW9000 turbofans for a total of 240 kilonewtons of thrust. You probably see where we're going with this. The B-21 has a comparatively more efficient powerplant. Its thrust-to-weight ratio, when empty, is about 0.77, and about 0.3 at maximum take-off weight. With this in mind, it stands to reason that you get more bang for mileage for your kerosene with the B-21. Another major feature of the B-21 is, of course, stealth. The B-2 was lucky, in a sense, that when it was introduced into service, stealth wasn't a priority. While aircraft design certainly looked to minimize their signatures, the B-2 was the first bomber to prioritize stealth above everything else. The environment in which the B-21 finds itself is much more competitive, as both China and Russia have since developed their own stealth technologies. China is currently in the final stretch of development of the H-20, an unmanned stealth bomber capable of intercontinental flight, a capability China did not previously possess, as their only strategic bomber to date is the H-6. Russia, at the same time, is developing the Tupolev PAK-2, a stealth strategic bomber with endurance outmatching the B-2. It's expected to start production in 2027, while the Eurasian powerhouse is also developing a massive fleet of Tu-160M2 bombers. Northrop's engineers took everything good about the B-2's stealth and dialed it up to 11 with the B-21. If we take a look at both designs side-by-side, we can notice that the engine inlets — those bumps on either side of the cockpit — are much smoother with the B-21. When it comes to stealth, the more streamlined the body of an aircraft is, the lower the likelihood of detection, and by enveloping the engines and their inlets into the body more, the B-21's radar cross-section is lowered dramatically. The B-21's trailing edge — which is the hind edge at the back of the aircraft, for those of you who don't know — has also been simplified by removing excessive serrations, all in order to minimize the radar's chance of being detected. Another major improvement is the type of radar absorber materials used with the radar. The B-2 is mostly made out of a carbon-graphite composite, which absorbs a lot of radar energy, while still being very strong, but very light. On top of that, a radar absorbing coating was also regularly applied to the B-2 to keep it hidden. This, however, necessitated excruciatingly specific storage conditions. The B-21's radar absorber materials had to be easier to maintain, and perform better than the B-2's. Now, out of all the classified information regarding the B-21 radar, this is the most secretive portion of it. However, it's reasonable to assume that the design is a combination of the B-2's stealth technologies — only improved and updated over time — as well as the F-35's stealth technologies. The F-35 is important because, similar to the radar, it was shaped by lessons learned from its predecessor, the F-22 Raptor. The materials used with the F-35 require less maintenance than the F-22's materials, and the fighter's design is focused on getting past high-frequency radar undetected, instead of low-frequency radar. The reason the F-35 comparably requires less maintenance is because its radar absorber material is partly baked onto the skin of the aircraft. It's essentially not a spray-on tan. This allows the F-35 to, for example, operate on aircraft carriers in a moist and salty environment while still retaining its stealth ability. Leaving it out in the open does take its toll on the aircraft's skin, as shown in this report, but the F-35 still has the radar cross-section of a golf ball. The B-21's skin has similar properties, something that simply wasn't an option with the B-2, as the technology did not exist at the time. Its airframe is mostly made from advanced carbon fiber polymer composites with radar absorber materials mixed into the resins and integrated directly into the skin of the aircraft. The so-called baked-in RAM is much less vulnerable to environmental factors, which means the B-21 can be parked outside in the rain without fear of its capabilities degrading. The part surrounding the engine exhaust is made with other materials to keep the thermal signature as low as possible. A ceramic composite was most likely used for this section, because this part of the airframe is exposed to temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, or almost 1,000 degrees Celsius, and ceramics are highly heat-resistant. When a radar wave hits the radar, its airframe traps the energy and converts it into harmless heat, which then dissipates. This happens at a molecular level. The B-21's shell, a combination of carbon and ceramics, oscillates and creates internal friction every time the radar is hit with a radar beam, and this friction is what converts electromagnetic radiation into heat. In combination with its shape and smaller size, the radar will be more stealthy than the B-2, without requiring very specific storage conditions. The B-2's radar cross-section was extremely small for an aircraft of that size, at approximately 0.1 square meters or 1.1 square feet. The B-21's cross-section is estimated to be even lower, at roughly 0.01 square meters, which is a tenth of a square foot. That fact, which kinda sounds made up when you hear it for the first time, tells you everything you need to know about how the B-21 improved upon existing stealth technologies. Another advantage the B-21 has over its predecessor is its open architecture, which enables fast software updates for weapons, sensors, and other systems. While the B-2's systems require specialized teams and quite a lot of downtime for every single upgrade and update, the B-21's systems are designed to minimize said downtime. It could also be said that the way the B-2 was built made every later upgrade disproportionately expensive, which is not the case with the B-21. Meaning that, over time, it will be comparatively much easier to fit it with new sensors and weapons, giving the B-21 more room for improvement. The platform won't age out at the rate of the B-2, nor will it become too expensive for its own good. Two billion dollars an aircraft. When it comes to the Raider's mission profile, it's going to remain primarily, but not entirely, a bomber aircraft. It is imperative for it to be capable of launching a nuclear cruise missile, and it will be assigned to carry the AGM-181 long-range standoff nuke with a range exceeding 1,500 miles or 2,500 km, which is currently in development by Raytheon. The other two nuclear options are the M61 Mod 12 nuclear glide bomb and the Mod 13 nuclear bunker buster. As for its non-nuclear options, the Raider will be armed with the extended-range variant and the anti-ship variant of the AGM-158 air-to-surface standoff missile, as well as the JDAM family of bombs. The Raider is, however, different from any similar aircraft that came before it, as it tries to redefine the role of a bomber with its ISR and electronic warfare roles. While these are most definitely not its primary roles, the Raider's sensory and electronic warfare suites are so advanced that there was, for a long time, talk of only having one pilot fly the Raider, with the other person aboard the aircraft being not a pilot, but a weapons system officer. This would shift the Raider's role from bombing to ISR — intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, electronic warfare — and even turn it into a commander aircraft for collaborative combat aircraft. The one-pilot idea was eventually scrapped, but the idea for the B-21 to take on a wider array of roles was not, and it's quite possible that the B-21 will be used as an ISR and EW aircraft on top of being used as a bomber. When discussing the lower wingman option with the Raider, the head of the US Armed Force Global Strike Command, General Stephen L. Davis, said that the Air Force is, quote, "...building those to be incorporated into the F-47 primarily in fighter aircraft. That's the first step. It's certainly possible in the future that they might become part of that family of systems." However, even though the Raider's architecture would certainly allow the use of CCAs in the future, he pointed out that unmanned platforms still do not have the extended flight envelope that the B-21 has. They would run out of range pretty quickly, which means that, at the time, the only way CCAs could be used with the B-21 is by launching them from a forward base. Adjacent to this topic, there's also been talk of the B-21 Raider becoming an unmanned bomber, or at least a remotely piloted one. China's H-20 bomber, mentioned earlier, is rumored to be an unmanned stealth bomber, and the capability to take the man out of the Raider is something the Air Force is currently exploring. When asked about it, General Davis confirmed that it's a future capability of the aircraft that the Air Force is looking into. Now, with all of that being said, it's clear that the B-21 Raider is the long-term focus of the Air Force's bomber modernization plan, and that it will quickly retire the Spirit and the Lancer in favor of something new that relies on the same principles, but with newer, more refined technologies on board. Now, it's not the purpose of this video to start digging the B-2's grave in the internet sphere. Quite the contrary. The B-2 is one of the greatest aircraft designs ever. Even if it was quite pricey, it revolutionized the thinking surrounding bombers, and pioneered stealth as the absolute imperative in that field. It walked so the B-21 could run, or rather, it flew so the B-21 could soar. It would be insulting, not to mention dishonest, to even call the B-2 obsolete. Most countries would kill to have such a bomber in their fleet, as the Spirit outmatches the capabilities of many modern designs to this day. However, the fact that the B-2 was a pioneer is exactly what makes the B-21 an upgrade. We can almost think of the B-2 program as a test case for stealth bombers. A series of prototypes, with the B-21 being the standardized and improved model, with all the kinks worked out, implementing all the lessons learned in the past two, almost three decades. At some point, someone realized that maximizing payload won't do you much good if the bomber is stuck in the hangar all the time. That having it isn't the same as having it operationally ready. And that having it operationally ready isn't that useful if the flight costs are so abhorrently monstrous that they'd make even Jeff Bezos cry, provided he still has enough humanity to do so. This is the entire point of the B-21 Raider. Making that next step, perfecting that diamond in the rough, and mass deploying it. And it won't stop at replacing only the B-2. The Raider in comparison to the Lancer and the Stratafortress When we take the B-1B Lancer's payload capacity and range it into account, we can make quite the case that it should not be retired any time soon. The Lancer can carry up to 75,000 pounds, or just over 34 tons, of internal ordnance, which is the greatest internal weapons load of any aircraft currently serving with the USAF, outmatching even the B-2. It can reach Mach 1.25, which is noticeably faster than both the B-2 and B-21, which can't even reach Mach 1. Its range, while not exactly in the 6,000 mile B-2 and B-21 ballpark, is still very good at just over 5,900 miles, or 9,400 kilometers. The Lancer, however, is not stealthy at all. It was designed for low-altitude penetration in the eventuality that the Cold War heated up, which never happened. You knew that. Stealth was never a priority with the Lancer, and if it were ever to be deployed in the Indo-Pacific region, which is where the USAF sees a future deployment of the Raider, it could never penetrate China's multi-layered air defenses. Its speed and payload don't mean much if the Lancer gets shot down before it gets close to the target. The B-21's survivability in a modern environment is what easily makes it a better option. Incredibly, and somewhat ironically, the only bomber that won't be immediately kicked off the roster as soon as the B-21 arrives is the oldest of them all, the Stratofortress. The Stratofortress is the only aircraft that will remain in the bomber force alongside the B-21 for the long term, according to the Air Force's plans. The B-52s will, of course, have to undergo a process of modernization to keep them fit for the modern threats they face. But the nearly century-old bombers will complement the Raiders perfectly. The Stratofortresses are currently having their engines replaced, they're adding new radars, and they're having their navigation and comms equipment modernized, which will result in approximately 30% better fuel efficiency and remove all existing reliability issues present with the current engines. It's the Air Force's goal to fly these well into the 2050s, which means that the Stratofortress will retain its title of the longest serving bomber in history, but the B-52 will serve a role entirely different from the Raiders. The B-52's got a range of 10,100 miles, or 16,300 kilometers, a payload capacity of 30 tons, or 70,000 pounds, and it currently carries the AGM-181A long-range standoff missile, the same nuclear missile that will be carried on board the Raiders. However, the B-52 will never be able to penetrate enemy air defenses, at least not when it comes to the United States' peer adversaries such as China or Russia. The B-21's stealth is crucial for this kind of mission, and the B-52's lack of stealth limits it to launching its payload from outside the threat envelope. In order to actually retire the Spirit and the Lancer, the Air Force first has to get its hands on the Raiders. It is unofficially understood that Northrop Grumman will produce eight Raiders a year, and that the total first order of 100 might easily be doubled over time. Not all of these Raiders will necessarily join the Air Force's ranks, as Australia is highly interested in the Raider, and the US might actually allow the procurement of the bomber, which would provide Australia with a dedicated bomber for the first time since 2010, when the F-111 was retired. A fleet consisting of 100 Raiders would be more than five times the size of the 19-strong B-2 fleet it is supposed to replace. If that number goes up to 145, the Raider fleet would, over time, grow to seven times the size of the B-2 fleet. The sheer scale of such a bomber fleet allows wiggle room in case of combat loss, it improves operational readiness because the maintenance burden per aircraft is easier to handle, and it would allow the Air Force to simultaneously deploy more aircraft closer to the front lines than was ever possible with the B-2 Spirit. Moreover, the revamping of the stealth technologies introduced with the B-2, making the Raider easier to maintain and keep in a state of readiness while cutting its payload capacity back, improves usability, and lowers flight and maintenance costs for each individual aircraft, which was the biggest problem with the B-2. The Raider's open architecture will allow long-term updates and upgrades, which will prolong its usefulness dramatically, and the possibility of it being unmanned or remotely piloted in the future puts it in a favorable position in the coming decades, when autonomous or partly autonomous bombing missions will become more common. The very first sixth-generation aircraft is here now, and soon it will write the end of the B-2's story and start a whole new chapter by bettering, in every possible way, the technologies introduced by its predecessor. Thank you for watching.