Following the success of Operation Midnight Hammer, the US Air Force’s top officer has drawn attention to the rapid progress the US is making in developing the next-generation B-21 Raider stealth bombers, which will form the cornerstone of the US’s conventional strike force, as well as its nuclear triad, for many decades to come.
The US Air Force (USAF) hopes to see a second pre-production B-21 Raider stealth bomber take to the skies for test flights before the end of this year.
Separately, the USAF is also testing the AGM-181A Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile, which will arm the B-21 Raiders, as well as the upgraded B-52H Stratofortress.
The updates on the highly classified programs were provided by Air Force Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, during a virtual talk hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on August 27.
“I believe it will happen before the end of the year, but we’re not going to ever give them an artificial date that they have to make if it doesn’t bring the test program along to where they need to be. We’re going to proceed as we can, efficiently, effectively, and with a sense of urgency, but we’re also going to be event-based,” said Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara.
“That’s really been the secret sauce to the B-21 right now, is no undue pressures. Let them do what they’re doing, and they’ll get us the world’s best aircraft here,” Gebara added.
Last month, Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, head of Air Force Global Strike Command, also stated that the second pre-production B-21 Raider will soon fly.
“We should see the second developmental test bird fly shortly,” Bussiere said in a July 25 interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine.
“I’m pleased with the progress of the production and test effort,” Bussiere added.
Notably, the USAF has approved six pre-production B-21 Raiders for test flights. The first of these six aircraft took to the skies for the first time in November 2023. The aircraft has been flying up to twice a week, its builder, Northrop Grumman, said last year.
If Northrop Grumman meets the timeline, then the USAF hopes to fly two pre-production B-21 Raiders in 2026. The USAF aims to begin flying B-21 Raiders operationally by the end of this decade.
“The B-21 is producing, its results-oriented in flight tests, basically on time, (and) basically on budget,” Gen. Gebara added in his remarks.
The B-21 Raider Production Starts
The B-21 Raider is a stealthy, subsonic, flying-wing design, intercontinental strategic bomber that can deliver both conventional and thermonuclear weapons. It has a maximum take-off weight of 80,000 Kg and can carry a weapon load of 9,100 kg.
Northrop received the green light last year to begin production of the B-21.
“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,” William LaPlante, defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, said in a statement in January last year.
“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.”
Furthermore, the company hopes to fast-track B-21 Raider production after receiving more than US$4.5 billion in funding in the reconciliation bill in June this year.
A U.S. defense official has said that approximately US$4.74 billion has been allocated to the B-21 development program—US$2.3 billion from the base budget and US$2.4 billion from the reconciliation bill —to “speed up production” of the aircraft. The official stated that the entire amount requested for the B-21, including production, was US$10.3 billion.
The B-21 Raider Fleet Size
When asked about the expected size of the B-21 fleet, Gen. Gebara said that work is still ongoing to reach a firm number.
The USAF’s stated goal is to induct at least 100 B-21 Raiders. However, that number could also go up.
“I think the work you’ve seen from the Congress to get us those additional funding tells me a couple (of) things that are very important. One is, it’s going to go a long way to be able to help us facilitate and get to the point where we can build this thing at scale,” Gebara said.
“I think the other piece to it, though, is it’s an absolute show of confidence by the Congress that we’re on the right track on this program. We’ve done a lot of work to hold changes to the minimum, to allow the program office and the contractor to get after it, and it’s paying dividends.”
The final B-21 fleet “numbers will absolutely be reliant on the work STRATCOM (U.S. Strategic Command) is doing, on what is sufficient,” Gebara added.
“But it’s important to remember this is also the backbone of our conventional force. And so we aren’t building out B-21 numbers only for our (nuclear) triad. We’re also building it out for our long-range (conventional) strike capability. And so all that will go into it.”
Clearly, the US does not want to repeat the mistakes of the B-2 Spirit program.
The United States Air Force procured a total of 21 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers. This includes one prototype (used primarily for testing but later upgraded to operational status) and 20 production aircraft.
The B-2 program, developed by Northrop Grumman, was initially planned for a larger fleet, but production was capped due to high costs and the end of the Cold War. However, this resulted in an exorbitant cost per aircraft, over USD 3 billion per aircraft (including production and lifecycle costs).
Currently, the USAF has only 19 B-2 Spirit bombers (after losing two aircraft in accidents). Even among them, not all are available for operations at any given time, severely limiting the USAF’s ability to deploy them for operations and force projection.
The USAF aims to procure B-21 Raiders in sufficient numbers to avoid repeating these same mistakes.
“Our bomber force right now is optimized for raids and small-scale, a few nights at a time… There’s no guarantee that’ll be the case in the future,” Gen. Gebra said.
Discussing the required fleet size of B-21 Raiders, former Indian Air Force veteran Air Marshal Anil Chopra has stated that the 100 planned B-21 Raiders will be inducted by the mid-2030s. By then, there will be much greater clarity on the evolving needs of combat aviation.
Additionally, the USAF is also testing the stealthy AGM-181 LRSO cruise missile, which will arm the B-21 Raiders and the upgraded B-52 Stratofortress.
“Our LRSO missile, which will go on our bomber force, has had four successful flight tests in 2025 alone. Based on time, based on budget, it’s going very well,” Gen. Gebra informed.
The steady progress in both the B-21 Raider program and the LRSO missile program means that the USAF’s Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program (much of which remains classified) is progressing as per schedule.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from The University of Sheffield, UK.
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