President of the American company Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Janis Pamilyans, said that the B-21 Raider strategic bomber, which is currently being developed for the U.S. Air Force, will look like the B-2 Spirit aircraft in service (operated in the military since 1997). This was reported by the portal Defense News.

However, the Pamilliance did not voice the characteristics of the B-21. At the same time, he noted that the plane will have the main advantages of its predecessor.

Pamilliance spoke at an event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the first flight of the B-2 Spirit. It took place on July 17, 1989, but the event itself took place more than a month later.

The B-21 Raider (B - bomber (bomber), "21" - XXI century) is being developed as a replacement for the strategic aircraft B-52 Stratofortress (in service since the 1950s) and B-2 Spirit, which was developed by Northrop Grumman in early 1990s.

The aircraft will be executed according to the “flying wing” scheme. Such an aerodynamic shape allows to reduce the radar signature. The main task of Raider will be the application of nuclear missile and bomb strikes.

It is assumed that the B-21 will be able to break through the enemy’s air defense, while remaining undetected by radar control. Also, the aircraft must carry out a combat mission in conditions of active electronic countermeasures.

The first flight of the B-21 is scheduled for December 2021. Tests of the prototype will be held at the United States Air Force airfield Edwards (California). Then the car will be handed over to the personnel of the Ellsworth Air Base (South Dakota). It is planned that the bomber should be put into service in the mid-2020s.

Indecently expensive plane

The Pentagon first spoke about the B-21 Raider project in February 2016. In an interview with RT, the founder of the Military Russia portal Dmitry Kornev noted that the Pentagon has high hopes for Raider. The expert suggests that the aircraft will be made of new composite materials, will receive more advanced missile weapons and airborne equipment.

“There is very little information about the B-21, but what is publicly available allows us to conclude that the machine will have subsonic speed and will receive more modern systems and assemblies. Perhaps the geometry of the wing, trailing edge, the shape of the cockpit will be slightly changed, and a number of other design innovations will appear, ”says Kornev.

  • B-2 at the airport of the Northrop Grumman plant in Palmdale, California
  • AFP
  • © Frederic J. Brown

According to unconfirmed information from the American media, Northrop Grumman is going to reduce the size of the aircraft compared to the B-2 (the wing span of the B-2 is 52 m, the length of the glider is 20.9 m), but it will retain the maximum take-off weight of the aircraft (about 170 tons) and combat load indicator (up to 27 tons).

According to the American edition of Military.com, Raider is created to correct the deficiencies of its predecessor.

Initially, the B-2 was developed to replace the entire fleet of B-52 and supersonic B-1 Lancer. In total, it was planned to produce about 130 cars. However, only 21 aircraft entered the US Air Force. The last sample left the assembly shop in 2000.

The reason for the closure of B-2 series production was the excessive cost of the program. The Pentagon expected that the cost of the machine would be about $ 500 million. But as a result of numerous changes made to the prototype, development work and Spirit tests were delayed, and the price doubled - by the end of the 1990s, the cost of one bomber exceeded $ 1 billion .

Given development costs (about $ 21 billion), each Spirit cost about $ 2 billion to the budget. Thus, the B-2 went down in history as the most expensive combat aircraft in the world.

Another drawback of the aircraft is its excessive whimsical service. B-2 can only be in special individual air-conditioned hangars. Long exposure to the sun negatively affects the radar absorbing coating and part of the equipment.

  • B-2 Bomber, Palmdale, CA July 17, 2014
  • AFP
  • © Frederic J. Brown

In December 2018, the report of the U.S. Congressional Office on the budget was published, which stated the inevitability of an increase in the cost of operating an American military fleet. Among the machines that will have to increase budget costs, called the B-2.

In addition, in the 2000s, Air Force engineers and Northrop Grumman specialists identified a number of serious defects in the B-2 that affect flight safety. For example, on a metal panel located in the rear of the aircraft, cracks from a hot jet stream constantly appeared. Such a malfunction may result in loss of machine control.

“We were able to destroy the stealth

In an interview with RT, military expert Yuri Knutov noted that Spirit was a great achievement in the US design school. The aircraft received an aerodynamic shape unusual for its time and many automated control systems. However, the project did not live up to the Pentagon’s expectations because of the huge costs and poor combat effectiveness, the analyst said.

“The B-2 was indecently expensive. But nevertheless, its main drawback is its low combat effectiveness. In particular, the “invisible” aircraft turned out to be vulnerable even to not very modern fighters and air defense systems. Its application cannot provide the benefits that Americans traditionally rely on, ”Knutov said.

One of the first alarming calls was the statement of the US Air Force pilot Larry Nielsen that the B-2 is visible on the radar of the MiG-29 fighter. In the 1990s, the pilot participated in tests of Soviet aircraft that the United States received from the fleet of the former GDR. In an interview with the World Air Power Journal, Nielsen said that Spirit can be taken in sight by the H019 complex developed by Fazotron-NIIR (Moscow).

It is difficult to call successful and the baptism of fire of V-2, which took place on the territory of Serbia in 1999. According to Yugoslav officers, on May 19 and 20 they managed to knock out two American bombers. According to the Serbian military, the "Spirit of Missouri" was damaged by an anti-aircraft missile near Belgrade, and the "Spirit of Washington" fell on the territory of Croatia.

“The events described in my book showed that even with outdated Russian weapons, we were able to destroy stealth (vehicles with low radar signature. - RT ) and other latest American aircraft. An official document issued to me by the Yugoslav army indicates that the personal account of my division lists the destroyed F-117s and F-16s, as well as the downed B-2s, ”former Yugoslav air defense officer George Anichich said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

However, the US side did not recognize the loss of two B-2s in 1999. To date, information about the withdrawal of the "Spirit of Missouri" and the "Spirit of Washington" from the Air Force does not appear in the documents of the Pentagon.

“Be that as it may, it is important that the Yugoslavs discovered these aircraft, moreover, by Soviet air defense systems. Most likely, non-catastrophic damage was caused to B-2. For example, there is a version that one of the bombers was forced to land at an airport in Croatia. Later, the Americans either repaired the damaged planes or wrote them off, but did not announce it publicly, ”Knutov explained.

  • B-2 Spirit strikes ground targets
  • Reuters
  • © USAF / MSgt Keith Reed

The interlocutor of RT believes that the B-21 can repeat the fate of its predecessor. In 2015, Northrop Grumman received a $ 21.4 billion contract from the Pentagon. But the total cost of the entire program, taking into account production costs, is projected to exceed $ 55 billion, Military.com predicts. Knutov believes that the B-21 will not be able to cross the line of Russian air defense , and its development and release will again require excessive costs.

"B-21, like other" invisibles ", Americans will be used only against countries that have very weak air defense. Investments in this project are caused by the inflation of the US military budget, which has been taking place in recent years. But by the time the Americans begin to operate the Raider, Russia will have new air defense systems and radar systems with a photon locator. Now we can clearly say that intercepting the V-21 will not be a difficult task for our long-range S-400 and S-500 systems and, possibly, other air defense systems, ”Knutov summarized.