The new B-21 Raider stealth bomber is making good progress and should fly in December 2021, USAF Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson said July 24.
Wilson,
speaking at an AFA Mitchell Institute event in Washington, D.C., said
the service continues to analyze its capacity for long-range strike. The
Air Force still believes it is short, and is reviewing alternative
force mixes.
Speaking
on deterrence and the need to modernize the nuclear command, control,
and communications network, Wilson said he was at Northrop Grumman’s
facilities in Melbourne, Fla. in the last few weeks, “looking at the
B-21,” and said the company is “moving out on that pretty fast.” Wilson
said he has an application on his phone “counting down the days … and
don’t hold me to it, but it’s something like 863 days to first flight.”
That
would put the first flight of the B-21 in December 2021. The Air Force
has said from the beginning that the first B-21 would be a “useable
asset” but has also said it doesn’t expect an initial operating
capability with the B-21 before the “mid 2020s.”
Northrop Grumman CEO “Kathy Warden and her team are focused on software integration and making sure … we’ll have the software ready for the plane when it’s delivered,” Wilson said.
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