U.S. Secret "Strategic Bomber" Construction Analysis
The United States has revealed the first prototype of the new strategic bomber, Northrop Grumman B-21 "Raider," to the public for the first time. This event is significant — it is the world's first new heavy bomber in over 30 years. Why does the U.S. Air Force need this new type of aircraft? What are its special features? When will it be officially deployed?
As early as 30 years ago, in 1992, the U.S. Air Force had already laid the groundwork for developing a new bomber. At that time, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended, leading to cuts in many U.S. defense projects, including the then-most advanced Northrop B-2 "Spirit" stealth strategic bomber.
Ultimately, the production number of the B-2 was reduced from 130 to 20 — since the plane had already entered production, it was too late to stop completely, otherwise the huge R&D funds invested by taxpayers would have been wasted. The reduction in production (not just abandoning some advanced technologies) directly caused the unit price to soar, and the maintenance difficulty and cost of this "customized" equipment were extremely high. The limited production of the new bomber, plus its existing functional defects (such as the B-2A being unable to carry long-range nuclear cruise missiles), forced the United States to continue using the old Boeing B-52H "Stratofortress" and the initially limited performance Rockwell B-1B "Lancer" bombers.
In the 1990s, the U.S. military had no time to focus on the development of new bombers. It wasn't until the 21st century that the relevant concept studies were officially launched, but for a long time, they remained at the "paper discussion" stage.
A key factor for the significant increase in R&D funding may be that the United States realized the world was shifting from the "low-intensity asymmetric war era" to the "new era of great power confrontation," with China as the primary opponent. In the potential Pacific theater, due to its geographical characteristics, there are "long target distances and low airport density." Moreover, with changes in the geopolitical landscape, the demand for strategic weapons carriers, whether nuclear or conventional, is increasing.
In the early 21st century, the U.S. military abandoned the "odd design" (for example, during the conceptual phase, they considered developing a supersonic unmanned strategic bomber) and instead chose a relatively conservative model — a subsonic stealth "flying wing" bomber. Essentially, it is a "smaller, mass-produced, low-cost" version of the B-2 "Spirit." In 2008, the U.S. military launched the "Next Generation Bomber" (NGB) R&D bid, with Northrop Grumman, the developer of the "Spirit" bomber, competing against a consortium of American defense giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Project progress was slow initially, due to insufficient funding — developing a "strategic bomber" was not yet the top priority. Shortly after the project started, it was renamed the "Long Range Strike-Bomber" (LRS-B) and restarted.
In 2015, Northrop Grumman won the bid, which was expected, for two reasons: First, after the U.S. defense industry monopoly formed in the 1990s, the Pentagon did not want to "put all eggs in one basket," but rather tried to support remaining manufacturers (Lockheed Martin had already secured the massive F-35 fighter contract, while Boeing took on the KC-46 "Pegasus" tanker project); second, in this contract, which was already relatively conservative, "having experience in developing and maintaining the B-2 'Spirit' bomber" became a key advantage.
In 2016, the U.S. military publicly released the concept image of the first new bomber and designated its model number as B-21 (the "21" in the number represents the 21st century; according to the standard naming rule, it should have been named B-3). Its official name is "Raider," to commemorate the "Doolittle Raid" — one of the most famous actions by U.S. bombing forces during World War II. On April 18, 1942, 18 B-25 "Mitchell" land-based bombers took off from an aircraft carrier and conducted a morale-boosting strike on Tokyo. Essentially, this was equivalent to the U.S. version of the Berlin bombing in August-September 1941. At the naming ceremony, the last surviving veteran of the air raid action also attended to witness the event.
For several years after that, the project remained largely secret. Although the U.S. military generally disclosed a lot about most projects, it still maintained strict secrecy for truly critical ones. During this period, only a few concept images were released, without revealing much new information.
Officially, the project is progressing smoothly, but it has also been affected by the pandemic (or perhaps the issue of actual progress falling behind the official plan, which is common in defense industries worldwide, has been attributed to the pandemic) — originally planned to not only complete the prototype display in 2022, but also to achieve the first flight in spring and summer, now the first flight has been postponed to mid-2023. However, the U.S. military eventually decided to display at least one of the six prototypes by the end of 2022 (officially stating that the other five are in different stages of production) to meet public expectations.
Although the presentation process only showed the fuselage from limited angles (basically only the front), and concealed sensitive details such as the engine exhaust structure, it can still be compared with expectations. Overall, the B-21 is indeed a "smaller version of the B-2 'Spirit,' as expected."
Its unique design is reflected in the cockpit glass — smaller in size (the purpose is to reduce radar cross-section: although the glass is treated with special coatings, the reflected signal is still stronger than the ordinary fuselage surface). In addition, the inlet adopts a semi-buried design, blending with the fuselage/wing — previously published concept images showed more conventional inlet designs. The appearance color of this bomber is significantly lighter than other stealth fighters, which may be because of a new coating, or it could be that the first prototype is temporarily using a regular coating instead of a radar-absorbing coating.
According to the current plan, the "initial limited operational capability" (limited weapon and onboard electronic equipment functions) of this new bomber is expected to be achieved in the second half of the 2020s of the 21st century.
The U.S. military plans to deliver approximately 20 of these bombers to the military by 2030, with a total production of "no less than 100," and the peak annual production "can reach 15." This move aims to gradually phase out the B-1B "Lancer" (these aircraft suffered serious losses in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as "mainstream aircraft") and the B-2A "Spirit" (some models have high maintenance costs and difficulties, and after the deployment of the new stealth bomber, they are no longer worth keeping).
The "veteran" B-52 "Stratofortress" will undergo deep modernization (including replacing the new engines) and will operate in conjunction with the B-21 until the 2050s of the 21st century — although the B-52 currently in service were all produced between 1961 and 1962, their age will approach 100 years! This "old model" is difficult to replace because it is easy to operate as a carrier platform and can carry large weapons, including future hypersonic missiles.
Technical details of the B-21 are rarely disclosed. It is known to be a subsonic twin-seat twin-engine (engine based on the F-35 fighter's F135 engine) bomber, with a "flying wing" layout, and widely used stealth technology.
All weapons are mounted in internal bays, and the plane is planned to be compatible with various precision-guided weapons of the U.S. military, such as the future Raytheon AGM-181 Long-Range Standoff Nuclear Cruise Missile (LRSO) — which differs from the B-2A that can only carry nuclear free-fall bombs. In addition, the plane can also carry air-launched drones (for reconnaissance, electronic interference).
According to public data, the B-21's maximum payload is "no more than 13.6 tons." If classified according to Russian standards, its size and weight characteristics are closer to the Tu-22M3 medium-range bomber.
It is almost certain that the B-21 is the last traditional U.S. bomber. Regardless of how the warfare forms in the 2050s of the 21st century, manned atmospheric strategic strike platforms are likely to no longer play a core role. However, the U.S. military plans to later convert the B-21 into a "optional manned" aircraft — it can fly unmanned during ultra-long duration or high-risk missions, or form a "manned command aircraft + unmanned wingman" mixed formation.
But the B-21 will not be the last strategic bomber in the world. In the future, related countries are likely to launch 1-2 new bombers (possibly strategic bombers, or both strategic and medium bombers); Russia, if it does not restart the Tu-160 production line, may also launch its own "Future Aerospace Complex of the Long-Range Aviation" (PAK DA).
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7571343879107019273/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author. Please express your opinion below using the [Up/Down] buttons.