U.S. Air Force Reveals (Not So) Cutting Edge B-21 Stealth Bomber

Unveiled during a ceremony Friday evening at the secretive Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, the B-21 “Raider” stealth bomber is the first new American strategic bomber in more than 30 years. Designed to provide a very-long-range intercontinental platform for delivering precision conventional and nuclear weapons, the B-21 is intended to replace the B-2 Spirit bomber that first took to the skies back in 1989, at the tail end of the Cold War.

From the outside, Northrop GrummanNOC
Corporation’s B-21 bomber represents an incremental design change to its predecessor. The shape is incredibly familiar, incorporating the same low-observable flying wing design as the B-2. Another similarity is the B-21’s heavy reliance on stealth technologies—specially designed airframe, careful placement of turbine engines, radar and infrared dampening materials—that help this bomber evade detection to conduct missions into heavily contested regions of the world. Think China, Russia, and North Korea—nations with incredibly dense sensor networks and large numbers of anti-aircraft missile launch systems.

By all outward appearances, the designation itself, B-21, seems relatively spot-on: the designation could easily be “B-2 dash 1,” or simply a more modern iteration of the B-2 bomber.

Highlights and Upside

Designed to take advantage of modern design and testing techniques, B-21 development was accelerated by using digital twins—a completely computerized digital replica of the bomber, computer assisted design, and advanced simulation techniques. These approaches enabled designers to develop, test, and implement many software-centric changes in a simulated environment before taking the timely step of incorporating those changes into the aircraft, accelerating development while reducing costs and minimizing lost time.

Most of the significant changes, according to Northrop Grumman, reside within the aircraft’s skin and take advantage of three decades-worth of technological advances. Most of the B-21’s specifics remain highly classified. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III, onsite for the unveiling, did share some highlights regarding what the B-21 offers, centered around efficiency, stealth, durability, and a forward-looking approach to future weapons design.

• Interestingly enough, the first strength cited by Austin was “efficiency.” Simply put, this means the bomber “won’t need to be based in-theater” or require “in-theater logistical support.” (Note: this applies to the current B-2)
• The second strength mentioned was “stealth.” Austin mentioned that the B-21 incorporates 50-years-worth of advances in stealth technology, which means that adversaries will “struggle to target the B-21.” While these advances undoubtedly further reduce the radar cross section of the bomber—and likely the infrared and electrical emissions of the aircraft—note that Austin correctly says “struggle to target” as opposed to impossible to target.
• Austin’s third strength was “maintainability.” He stated that the B-21 will be the most maintainable bomber ever built. As a recently retired military pilot, TOPGUN instructor, and military strategist who worked regularly with Air Force designers, it’s hard to quantify exactly what Austin is touting. Perhaps a baseline level of cost savings as compared to the B-21’s predecessors?
• The fourth strength was the ability to “deliver conventional and nuclear munitions with formidable results.” No new B-21 weapons systems were mentioned or highlighted so this, too, remains a continuation of the B-2’s capabilities.
• The only unique area that really highlights a difference between the B-21 and previous generation aircraft appears to be two factors: first, an open-system architecture that enables flexibility in evolving for future weapon designs and, second, the so-called “sixth generation” ability to gather intel, conduct battle management, and interoperate more closely with allies and partners.

Perhaps the biggest success story is that the U.S. Air Force—and by extension, the Department of Defense and Congress—was able to maintain a large-scale military program on budget, a rarity in modern-day weapon system procurement.

In general, the B-21 will be a modernized continuation of the B-2 Spirit. It will ably serve as the airborne—and most flexible—leg of the nuclear triad (the other two legs being intercontinental ballistic missiles’ responsiveness and nuclear submarines’ survivability). The B-21 will serve America’s interests by helping to deter conflict.

The overarching strategic calculus: if a stealthy bomber can evade your defenses and bring precision munitions to bear, then the risk and cost of aggression will far outweigh any conceivable gains.

Potential Downsides

Let’s start with an obvious: this was an awkward rollout. The Air Force and Northrop Grumman chose to unveil the B-21 late on a Friday. Weird. Friday night news releases are largely relegated to bad news the government would rather bury. Friday night seems an odd choice given the bomber’s prominence and seemingly important role as part of America’s nuclear triad. Perhaps it was to conduct the unveiling as the sun was setting. Stealthy.

The rollout was also sparse, devoid of any real meat about the B-21 or its advanced capabilities. Kathy Warden—Northrop Grumman’s CEO, chair, and president—thanked employees for their efforts before the B-21 was towed out of its hangar, silhouetted by flashing lights and smoke to present a nose-on view of the aircraft. Fifteen minutes later, following remarks about the role it will play in deterring conflict, the bomber was pushed back into its berth.

Who was this unveiling for? In the 1990s, simple acknowledgement of the existence of an advanced stealth bomber was enough to have other nations’ strategists rushing to whiteboards, anxiously rethinking their decision calculus. In today’s environment, however, more should have been shared regarding how the aircraft will fulfill it’s mission. In a vacuum, a continuation of largely preexisting capabilities is not likely to change an adversary’s thought process regarding what the U.S. is, and is not, capable of doing during times of conflict.

That’s the crux of this unveil and, in general, speaks to the challenge in modern day signaling. What do current and near-term evolutions for weapons systems really mean? When a system’s changes are largely internal, and go mostly undiscussed, how does one signal generational leaps in capability? The inability to do so is more likely to erode deterrence than to further it.

To be sure, better integrating allied forces through increased data sharing and networking is an advantage. So is turning more platforms into advanced sensors that can sniff out adversaries’ electronic and other multi-spectral emissions, helping to create a far more granular assessment of a highly contested operating environment. But the B-21 will be used in a ‘break glass in case of war’ scenario rather than for daily data collection, as far better platforms exist for for that purpose.

The B-21 also represents an extension of a long-held (and largely unproven) American thesis for how to conduct modern aerial warfare: choosing ultra-expensive stealth platforms designed to avoid detection rather than pursuing other less expensive propositions used by other most other nations, who incorporate active electronic jamming—not stealth—to similarly hide an aircraft or confuse detection systems.

This debate—to pursue stealth or to choose far less expensive options—has been a source of active debate for decades within the U.S. military and budgetary community. Since stealth platforms have not yet faced a technologically superior foe in open combat, the jury is still out regarding how well stealth will fare in today’s modern environment. Concepts like sensor fusion—pulling in multiple land, air, sea, and space-based multispectral sensors to form a sensitive detection network—aren’t unique to U.S. or allied forces. In fact, potential adversaries have widely adopted and proliferated these techniques in a specific bid to negate stealthy advantages.

Let’s leave off with a far more dangerous concern: digital threats. History continues to demonstrate that fully digitized platforms are far more susceptible to electronic and cyber attacks than ever before. Other modern day programs have proven to be susceptible to attack: in some cases attacks can force systems offline, open vast data caches to exfiltration, or present vulnerabilities that can be attacked by zero-day exploits. Worse, although weapons designers are fully aware of these issues, it’s pretty much impossible to ensure protection against all threats at all times. In electronic and cyber warfare, offense still holds an advantage over defense. How will these realities impact our increasingly networked nuclear triad in the years to come?

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider will be a supremely capable aircraft, bringing modern design and technology advantages to bear. Greater data collection, information sharing, and (potentially) increased penetration power for long-range stealthy strikes are all certainly there. Perhaps even lower lifetime costs and a better ability to incorporate future sensor and weapons advances as well.

But it’s unlikely to fulfill its primary mission: to significantly improve the strategic calculus already established by the B-2 Spirit is replaces.