LRS-B... The B-21
Apologies, I meant to say the picture seems to be taken from outside the Palmdale airport fence, so it should be okay. If USAF-PR people suggest to not take certain pictures during a base visit inside a military installation, that is okay as well.
the Plant 42 area or outside the N-G hangar itself.
Strictly speaking it is an airport, anyhow has anyone on here been to Plant 42 / Palmdale?
Anyone with a decent DSLR, say Cannon EOS7D and a long range lens (one of the ones which is 4 figure sum) and shoot it from the highway or somewhere public. I do not think the photographer is an employee of either USAF AFSC or N-G or anyone else there hell he has his own watermark signatory.
cheers
Strictly speaking it is an airport, anyhow has anyone on here been to Plant 42 / Palmdale?
Anyone with a decent DSLR, say Cannon EOS7D and a long range lens (one of the ones which is 4 figure sum) and shoot it from the highway or somewhere public. I do not think the photographer is an employee of either USAF AFSC or N-G or anyone else there hell he has his own watermark signatory.
cheers
Car (automobile) manufacturers are given to putting false contours on prototypes before public launch - I assume that isn't beyond Northrop's capabilities prior to transfer to Edwards.
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You would think for all that money, it would have had retractable undercarriage 
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
The exterior is continuously curved, with all leading edges swept at the same angle (including hatches).
The bomb bay is the only flat surface (and this may have a gentle curve we cannot see in this lighting).
This is mathematically a nightmare for radars. 🤘
The bomb bay is the only flat surface (and this may have a gentle curve we cannot see in this lighting).
This is mathematically a nightmare for radars. 🤘
Dunno if its so much the decibels of the noise its directional. Where I used to live was in the flightpath of airport. With F-18's you could hear them coming, I could here them jet up from my computer get onto veranda and see them them as the come past. With F-35 you dont hear them till they are over yo
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...hat-we-learned
B-21 Raider’s First Flight: What We Learned
Our analysis of seeing the first B-21 Raider, nicknamed Cerberus, in the sky and from many new angles for the very first time.
B-21 Raider’s First Flight: What We Learned
Our analysis of seeing the first B-21 Raider, nicknamed Cerberus, in the sky and from many new angles for the very first time.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
https://breakingdefense.com/2024/01/...pentagon-says/
B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber in Production, Pentagon Says
WASHINGTON — Following the first flight of the Air Force’s newest stealth bomber, the Pentagon has formally approved the B-21 Raider program to begin production, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official confirmed to Breaking Defense today.
“Production of the B-21 ‘Raider’ stealth bomber is moving forward. This past fall, based on the results of ground and flight tests and the team’s mature plans for manufacturing, I gave the go-ahead to begin producing B-21s at a low rate,” Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment William LaPlante said in a statement.
“One of the key attributes of this program has been designing for production from the start — and at scale — to provide a credible deterrent to adversaries. If you don’t produce and field to warfighters at scale, the capability doesn’t really matter,” he added.
Further detail about the contract award value and delivery dates were not immediately available….
“As shared by the U.S. Air Force, the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider has entered low-rate initial production. Our team received the contract award after B-21 entered flight testing within the program baseline schedule. Our production representative test aircraft indicated readiness for production, achieving all flight performance and data requirements,” Northrop Grumman said in a statement.
“As the world’s first six-generation aircraft, B-21 forms the backbone of the future for U.S. air power, delivering a new era of capability and flexibility through advanced integration of data, sensors and weapons, and is rapidly upgradable to outpace evolving threats,” the company added.
B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber in Production, Pentagon Says
WASHINGTON — Following the first flight of the Air Force’s newest stealth bomber, the Pentagon has formally approved the B-21 Raider program to begin production, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official confirmed to Breaking Defense today.
“Production of the B-21 ‘Raider’ stealth bomber is moving forward. This past fall, based on the results of ground and flight tests and the team’s mature plans for manufacturing, I gave the go-ahead to begin producing B-21s at a low rate,” Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment William LaPlante said in a statement.
“One of the key attributes of this program has been designing for production from the start — and at scale — to provide a credible deterrent to adversaries. If you don’t produce and field to warfighters at scale, the capability doesn’t really matter,” he added.
Further detail about the contract award value and delivery dates were not immediately available….
“As shared by the U.S. Air Force, the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider has entered low-rate initial production. Our team received the contract award after B-21 entered flight testing within the program baseline schedule. Our production representative test aircraft indicated readiness for production, achieving all flight performance and data requirements,” Northrop Grumman said in a statement.
“As the world’s first six-generation aircraft, B-21 forms the backbone of the future for U.S. air power, delivering a new era of capability and flexibility through advanced integration of data, sensors and weapons, and is rapidly upgradable to outpace evolving threats,” the company added.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
https://theaviationist.com/2024/03/1...throp-grumman/
New B-21 Raider Photo Released By Northrop Grumman
A new photo was released as part of a press release on the Aviation Week Grand Laureate Award received by Northrop Grumman for the B-21 Raider during the 66th Annual Laureate awards in Washington DC.Northrop Grumman received the Aviation Week Grand Laureate Award for its role as the prime contractor delivering the B-21 Raider to the United States Air Force during the 66th Annual Laureate awards in Washington DC. Together with the press statement, the company also released a new photo of the B-21, which appears to have been taken before the rollout ceremony in 2022…..
The aircraft is currently undergoing a robust flight test campaign executed by the B-21 Combined Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base, California, after the first flight from Palmdale in November 2023 and the Low-Rate Initial Production contract in January 2024. Northrop Grumman added in the press release that the program is continuing to meet all DoD technical, schedule and affordability requirements on its path to operational capability.
Developed with the next generation of stealth technology, advanced networking capabilities and open systems architecture, the B-21 Raider will serve as the backbone of America’s bomber fleet, with 100 bombers on order to replace the B-2A Spirit and B-1B Lancer bombers. The B-21 might take an even bigger role in future, as the head of U.S. Strategic Command expressed interest in acquiring more than the planned 100 aircraft.
“The limited production rate of the B-21 is the only thing that I wish we could do a little quicker,” Gen. Anthony J. Cotton said during a recent Senate Armed Services Committee. “The fact that that is an incredible sixth-generation platform, all indications are that the weapons system is moving along at a great pace as far as delivery. The ability for production and the number of production, as a warfighter, obviously I would love more.”
Former heads of the Air Force Global Strike Command and experts from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies also said the U.S. Air Force might need as many as 150-225 B-21s should the United States end up in a war with a near-peer adversary like China. The Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, however, argued that such a decision might not happen soon.
“The decision point, with lead time accounted for, to go past 100 is not until the mid to late ’30s,” Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr. said. “So the commitment right now is to 100 aircraft. That takes us for procurement into the late ’30s. The decision whether or not to go past that may very well not be based on China, because it will be made at a time when we don’t foresee the security environment and we don’t need to.”
The General, however, did not exclude such a decision, adding that the service is thinking about it, but the decision doesn’t need to be made now. In the meanwhile, the Air Force is moving funds from research and development to the procurement of the new bomber in the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request. Specifically, funding for the engineering, manufacturing and development phase will go from this year’s $3 billion to $2.7 billion, while procurement funding will increase from $2.3 billion to $2.7 billion.
New B-21 Raider Photo Released By Northrop Grumman
A new photo was released as part of a press release on the Aviation Week Grand Laureate Award received by Northrop Grumman for the B-21 Raider during the 66th Annual Laureate awards in Washington DC.Northrop Grumman received the Aviation Week Grand Laureate Award for its role as the prime contractor delivering the B-21 Raider to the United States Air Force during the 66th Annual Laureate awards in Washington DC. Together with the press statement, the company also released a new photo of the B-21, which appears to have been taken before the rollout ceremony in 2022…..
The aircraft is currently undergoing a robust flight test campaign executed by the B-21 Combined Test Force at Edwards Air Force Base, California, after the first flight from Palmdale in November 2023 and the Low-Rate Initial Production contract in January 2024. Northrop Grumman added in the press release that the program is continuing to meet all DoD technical, schedule and affordability requirements on its path to operational capability.
Developed with the next generation of stealth technology, advanced networking capabilities and open systems architecture, the B-21 Raider will serve as the backbone of America’s bomber fleet, with 100 bombers on order to replace the B-2A Spirit and B-1B Lancer bombers. The B-21 might take an even bigger role in future, as the head of U.S. Strategic Command expressed interest in acquiring more than the planned 100 aircraft.
“The limited production rate of the B-21 is the only thing that I wish we could do a little quicker,” Gen. Anthony J. Cotton said during a recent Senate Armed Services Committee. “The fact that that is an incredible sixth-generation platform, all indications are that the weapons system is moving along at a great pace as far as delivery. The ability for production and the number of production, as a warfighter, obviously I would love more.”
Former heads of the Air Force Global Strike Command and experts from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies also said the U.S. Air Force might need as many as 150-225 B-21s should the United States end up in a war with a near-peer adversary like China. The Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, however, argued that such a decision might not happen soon.
“The decision point, with lead time accounted for, to go past 100 is not until the mid to late ’30s,” Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr. said. “So the commitment right now is to 100 aircraft. That takes us for procurement into the late ’30s. The decision whether or not to go past that may very well not be based on China, because it will be made at a time when we don’t foresee the security environment and we don’t need to.”
The General, however, did not exclude such a decision, adding that the service is thinking about it, but the decision doesn’t need to be made now. In the meanwhile, the Air Force is moving funds from research and development to the procurement of the new bomber in the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request. Specifically, funding for the engineering, manufacturing and development phase will go from this year’s $3 billion to $2.7 billion, while procurement funding will increase from $2.3 billion to $2.7 billion.
Last edited by ORAC; 19th Mar 2024 at 12:51.
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Don't cross post that picture to the UFO thread!
Up near Ogden, Utah, a few years back we heard them from miles away as they went to full power.
(There are a lot of mountains nearby, I wonder if the echo amplified that ...)
(There are a lot of mountains nearby, I wonder if the echo amplified that ...)