Analysis: Discover how the first flight of the second B-21 Raider will shape America’s stealth bomber force for decades
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The US Air Force announced on September 11, 2025, that a second B-21 Raider test aircraft successfully conducted its first flight from Palmdale, California, before joining the test campaign at Edwards Air Force Base. This development expands the service’s ability to conduct more advanced testing after almost two years of trials with only one flying aircraft. The US Air Force said the addition of a second test airframe will allow the program to move beyond initial airworthiness and flight-performance checks into evaluations of mission systems and weapons integration.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
With two flying B-21 Raiders now participating in the test campaign, the Air Force will gain redundancy and capacity in testing mission systems, weapons integration, and sustainment procedures, which tends to reduce the risk of schedule delays. (Picture source: US Air Force)
Officials noted that the presence of two aircraft will also allow maintainers to begin simultaneous work on repairs, sustainment tools, and logistical processes, providing critical data for eventual operational employment. This flight milestone occurred close to the 10th anniversary of the US Air Force’s 2015 award of the Long-Range Strike Bomber contract to Northrop Grumman. At Edwards, the B-21 test program is led by the 412th Test Wing and the US Air Force Test Center. The first B-21, which flew in November 2023, has been involved in performance validation, avionics trials, and structural assessments, while additional airframes support ground-based testing of loads and systems integration.
Unlike traditional prototypes, all B-21 test aircraft are built to production-representative standards, allowing them to be converted to operational units after testing. Northrop Grumman builds the Raiders at Plant 42 in Palmdale, inside Building 401 on Site 4, and each new flight test aircraft departs through the public airport before relocating to secure areas at Edwards. The manufacturer has also constructed static and fatigue-test articles and continues assembling additional flight-test aircraft, sustaining a test fleet that supports both near-term evaluations and long-term planning for operational transition.
The first flight of the second B-21 Raider is likely to have operational and strategic effects that extend well into the future, though many details remain subject to classification or still-in-progress testing. With a second production-representative airframe now flying, the test campaign can expand its scope more quickly, enabling earlier identification of system integration issues, weapon compatibility concerns, and maintenance challenges. That in turn may reduce future certification delays and minimize the risk of design changes late in the process, which often drive cost increases and schedule slips. From a logistics and sustainment point of view, having multiple test aircraft allows for parallel evaluation of supply chain demands, maintenance tooling, and personnel training, providing data needed for forming operational squadrons with predictable readiness rates.
Strategically, the arrival of the second aircraft supports the US Air Force’s intent to field at least 100 B-21s, offering redundancy in the long-range bomber force that may strengthen deterrence posture vis-à-vis near-peer competitors with improved air defense systems. The increased test capacity may also allow the US Air Force to validate stealth, low-observable sustainment, and mission system reliability under more varied conditions, which is essential given the expectation that the B-21 must operate in highly contested environments. Performance in those tests will influence deployment timelines, base bed-down decisions, and operational concepts such as forward basing or distributed operations. The second flight thus represents not only a milestone in aircraft development but a step that could shape force structure, deterrence credibility, and bomber force modernization for decades.
The origins of the B-21 Raider trace back to the US Air Force’s Long Range Strike Bomber program, which was initiated in 2011 to develop a new strategic platform capable of operating in highly contested environments. The service issued a request for proposals in 2014, and in October 2015, Northrop Grumman was awarded the contract after a competition that also included a joint Boeing and Lockheed Martin team. Oversight of the program was assigned to the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office to streamline development outside of the standard procurement framework. In December 2018, the program completed its critical design review, and by 2021, the first two aircraft were under construction at Plant 42 in Palmdale. The first public unveiling took place in December 2022, followed by the inaugural flight in November 2023. The bomber’s name, Raider, was chosen in 2016 to honor the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, with surviving veteran Richard Cole participating in the ceremony that formally revealed the designation.
The bomber’s name, Raider, was chosen in 2016 to honor the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, with surviving veteran Richard Cole participating in the ceremony that formally revealed the designation. (Picture source: Northrop Grumman)
Available data on the B-21 Raider’s general characteristics show that the aircraft uses a flying wing configuration similar in concept to the earlier B-2, though smaller in scale, with significant refinements to radar cross-section reduction. Estimates place its length at around 16 meters and wingspan at 40 meters, with an empty weight of about 31,750 kilograms and a maximum takeoff weight of 81,600 kilograms. Propulsion is provided by two Pratt & Whitney non-afterburning turbofan engines generating approximately 120 kilonewtons of thrust each. The B-21 is designed to cruise at speeds above Mach 0.8, operate at altitudes up to 15,000 meters, and carry a payload of around 9,100 kilograms in its internal weapons bay. Compatible munitions are expected to include nuclear assets such as the AGM-181 Long-Range Stand-Off missile and B61 bombs, along with conventional systems including JDAM precision-guided bombs and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. The aircraft’s modular open-systems architecture is intended to simplify upgrades to avionics, sensors, and weapons over its service life.
The US Air Force’s fiscal year 2026 budget requests $10.3 billion for the B-21 program, divided between procurement, development, modernization, and construction. Procurement totals $5.41 billion, of which $862 million is for advance procurement of long-lead items and production support, while development receives $3.98 billion to sustain test aircraft, expand infrastructure, and support integration work. A modernization line of $757 million, an increase over the prior year, is intended for nuclear certification, sensor integration, structural updates, and risk reduction for future configurations. Although the US Air Force acknowledged errors in FY26 budget tables, the service restated its plan to acquire at least 100 B-21s to replace the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets by the early 2030s. Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota remains the first operational location and the Formal Training Unit, with further basing projects scheduled at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas beginning in fiscal 2026.
The Raider is designed as a dual-capable system, carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons. It features an open-systems architecture intended to allow incremental upgrades and integration of future munitions and sensors. The bomber is central to the Long Range Strike architecture, which also includes the AGM-181A Long-Range Stand-Off nuclear cruise missile and the Next Generation Penetrator (NGP). The NGP program was launched following the combat debut of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator in Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025, when B-2 bombers dropped 14 of the weapons on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz. Initial assessments indicated some structures may have survived, leading to new requirements for greater standoff capability, autonomous navigation in GPS-denied conditions, and advanced fuzing. The NGP is expected to weigh up to 22,000 pounds, fit inside the B-21’s weapons bay, and may include powered standoff capability. The US Air Force has planned delivery of multiple subscale test articles and up to five full-scale prototypes within two years of contract award, aiming to reach Technology Readiness Levels 5 to 6 by the end of prototyping.
Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force have emphasized digital engineering and integrated production methods as central to the program. These include extensive use of digital design environments and testbeds that supported hundreds of simulated flights and over a thousand test hours before the first actual flight in 2023. Officials said this digital approach has reduced software certification times by half and limited early-stage software changes during flight tests, while also supporting training and sustainment. Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma is assigned for long-term maintenance, while Edwards leads test and evaluation, and Ellsworth prepares for training and operations. Infrastructure construction is underway to support stealth maintenance facilities and basing needs. While allied interest has emerged, notably in Australia, where debates linked the bomber to AUKUS submarine delays, no foreign sales have been approved. U.S. leaders continue to state the objective of at least 100 Raiders, with the two test aircraft at Edwards now providing the capacity to advance weapons and mission-systems trials in line with sustainment, basing, and modernization planning.
Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.
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The US Air Force announced on September 11, 2025, that a second B-21 Raider test aircraft successfully conducted its first flight from Palmdale, California, before joining the test campaign at Edwards Air Force Base. This development expands the service’s ability to conduct more advanced testing after almost two years of trials with only one flying aircraft. The US Air Force said the addition of a second test airframe will allow the program to move beyond initial airworthiness and flight-performance checks into evaluations of mission systems and weapons integration.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
With two flying B-21 Raiders now participating in the test campaign, the Air Force will gain redundancy and capacity in testing mission systems, weapons integration, and sustainment procedures, which tends to reduce the risk of schedule delays. (Picture source: US Air Force)
Officials noted that the presence of two aircraft will also allow maintainers to begin simultaneous work on repairs, sustainment tools, and logistical processes, providing critical data for eventual operational employment. This flight milestone occurred close to the 10th anniversary of the US Air Force’s 2015 award of the Long-Range Strike Bomber contract to Northrop Grumman. At Edwards, the B-21 test program is led by the 412th Test Wing and the US Air Force Test Center. The first B-21, which flew in November 2023, has been involved in performance validation, avionics trials, and structural assessments, while additional airframes support ground-based testing of loads and systems integration.
Unlike traditional prototypes, all B-21 test aircraft are built to production-representative standards, allowing them to be converted to operational units after testing. Northrop Grumman builds the Raiders at Plant 42 in Palmdale, inside Building 401 on Site 4, and each new flight test aircraft departs through the public airport before relocating to secure areas at Edwards. The manufacturer has also constructed static and fatigue-test articles and continues assembling additional flight-test aircraft, sustaining a test fleet that supports both near-term evaluations and long-term planning for operational transition.
The first flight of the second B-21 Raider is likely to have operational and strategic effects that extend well into the future, though many details remain subject to classification or still-in-progress testing. With a second production-representative airframe now flying, the test campaign can expand its scope more quickly, enabling earlier identification of system integration issues, weapon compatibility concerns, and maintenance challenges. That in turn may reduce future certification delays and minimize the risk of design changes late in the process, which often drive cost increases and schedule slips. From a logistics and sustainment point of view, having multiple test aircraft allows for parallel evaluation of supply chain demands, maintenance tooling, and personnel training, providing data needed for forming operational squadrons with predictable readiness rates.
Strategically, the arrival of the second aircraft supports the US Air Force’s intent to field at least 100 B-21s, offering redundancy in the long-range bomber force that may strengthen deterrence posture vis-à-vis near-peer competitors with improved air defense systems. The increased test capacity may also allow the US Air Force to validate stealth, low-observable sustainment, and mission system reliability under more varied conditions, which is essential given the expectation that the B-21 must operate in highly contested environments. Performance in those tests will influence deployment timelines, base bed-down decisions, and operational concepts such as forward basing or distributed operations. The second flight thus represents not only a milestone in aircraft development but a step that could shape force structure, deterrence credibility, and bomber force modernization for decades.
The origins of the B-21 Raider trace back to the US Air Force’s Long Range Strike Bomber program, which was initiated in 2011 to develop a new strategic platform capable of operating in highly contested environments. The service issued a request for proposals in 2014, and in October 2015, Northrop Grumman was awarded the contract after a competition that also included a joint Boeing and Lockheed Martin team. Oversight of the program was assigned to the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office to streamline development outside of the standard procurement framework. In December 2018, the program completed its critical design review, and by 2021, the first two aircraft were under construction at Plant 42 in Palmdale. The first public unveiling took place in December 2022, followed by the inaugural flight in November 2023. The bomber’s name, Raider, was chosen in 2016 to honor the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, with surviving veteran Richard Cole participating in the ceremony that formally revealed the designation.
The bomber’s name, Raider, was chosen in 2016 to honor the Doolittle Raiders of World War II, with surviving veteran Richard Cole participating in the ceremony that formally revealed the designation. (Picture source: Northrop Grumman)
Available data on the B-21 Raider’s general characteristics show that the aircraft uses a flying wing configuration similar in concept to the earlier B-2, though smaller in scale, with significant refinements to radar cross-section reduction. Estimates place its length at around 16 meters and wingspan at 40 meters, with an empty weight of about 31,750 kilograms and a maximum takeoff weight of 81,600 kilograms. Propulsion is provided by two Pratt & Whitney non-afterburning turbofan engines generating approximately 120 kilonewtons of thrust each. The B-21 is designed to cruise at speeds above Mach 0.8, operate at altitudes up to 15,000 meters, and carry a payload of around 9,100 kilograms in its internal weapons bay. Compatible munitions are expected to include nuclear assets such as the AGM-181 Long-Range Stand-Off missile and B61 bombs, along with conventional systems including JDAM precision-guided bombs and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. The aircraft’s modular open-systems architecture is intended to simplify upgrades to avionics, sensors, and weapons over its service life.
The US Air Force’s fiscal year 2026 budget requests $10.3 billion for the B-21 program, divided between procurement, development, modernization, and construction. Procurement totals $5.41 billion, of which $862 million is for advance procurement of long-lead items and production support, while development receives $3.98 billion to sustain test aircraft, expand infrastructure, and support integration work. A modernization line of $757 million, an increase over the prior year, is intended for nuclear certification, sensor integration, structural updates, and risk reduction for future configurations. Although the US Air Force acknowledged errors in FY26 budget tables, the service restated its plan to acquire at least 100 B-21s to replace the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets by the early 2030s. Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota remains the first operational location and the Formal Training Unit, with further basing projects scheduled at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas beginning in fiscal 2026.
The Raider is designed as a dual-capable system, carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons. It features an open-systems architecture intended to allow incremental upgrades and integration of future munitions and sensors. The bomber is central to the Long Range Strike architecture, which also includes the AGM-181A Long-Range Stand-Off nuclear cruise missile and the Next Generation Penetrator (NGP). The NGP program was launched following the combat debut of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator in Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025, when B-2 bombers dropped 14 of the weapons on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz. Initial assessments indicated some structures may have survived, leading to new requirements for greater standoff capability, autonomous navigation in GPS-denied conditions, and advanced fuzing. The NGP is expected to weigh up to 22,000 pounds, fit inside the B-21’s weapons bay, and may include powered standoff capability. The US Air Force has planned delivery of multiple subscale test articles and up to five full-scale prototypes within two years of contract award, aiming to reach Technology Readiness Levels 5 to 6 by the end of prototyping.
Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force have emphasized digital engineering and integrated production methods as central to the program. These include extensive use of digital design environments and testbeds that supported hundreds of simulated flights and over a thousand test hours before the first actual flight in 2023. Officials said this digital approach has reduced software certification times by half and limited early-stage software changes during flight tests, while also supporting training and sustainment. Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma is assigned for long-term maintenance, while Edwards leads test and evaluation, and Ellsworth prepares for training and operations. Infrastructure construction is underway to support stealth maintenance facilities and basing needs. While allied interest has emerged, notably in Australia, where debates linked the bomber to AUKUS submarine delays, no foreign sales have been approved. U.S. leaders continue to state the objective of at least 100 Raiders, with the two test aircraft at Edwards now providing the capacity to advance weapons and mission-systems trials in line with sustainment, basing, and modernization planning.
Written by Jérôme Brahy
Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.
