{"id":39071,"date":"2019-07-25T19:06:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T19:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/25\/coming-in-2021-the-b-21-raiders-first-flight\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:12:33","slug":"coming-in-2021-the-b-21-raiders-first-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2019\/07\/25\/coming-in-2021-the-b-21-raiders-first-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming in 2021: The B-21 Raider\u2019s first flight?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Air Force\u2019s No. 2 officer has a countdown on his iPhone for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/06\/25\/the-new-b-21-raider-could-hit-a-big-milestone-this-year\/\" target=_blank>first B-21 Raider flight<\/a>, and it may happen sooner than you think: December 2021, to be exact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDon\u2019t hold me to it, but it\u2019s something like 863 days to first flight,\u201d said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airforcemag.com\/Features\/Pages\/2019\/July%202019\/B-21-to-Fly-in-December-2021-More-B-52s-to-Come-Out-of-Boneyard.aspx\" target=_blank>according to Air Force Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/12\/07\/blink-and-youll-miss-it-the-b-21-bomber-accomplishes-another-big-review\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/B-21_ocean.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Blink and you\u2019ll miss it: The B-21 bomber accomplishes another big review<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The final design of the B-21 is getting clearer&#8230;to the Air Force and Northrop Grumman, at least.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson, who spoke July 24 at an AFA Mitchell Institute event, said he had r<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2018\/03\/07\/some-hiccups-with-engine-design-but-b-21-on-track-wittman-says\/\" target=_blank>ecently visited B-21 prime contractor Northrop Grumman\u2019s facilities<\/a> in Melbourne, Fla., and that the company was \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/nuclear-arsenal\/2017\/03\/08\/b-21-raider-covertly-completes-preliminary-design-review\/\" target=_blank>moving out on that pretty fast.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 863-day countdown \u2014 if it is accurate \u2014 would peg the Raider\u2019s inaugural flight to Dec. 3, 2021. And while there\u2019s still ample time for design problems and budget setbacks to delay that schedule, analysts said the Air Force\u2019s disclosure of the first flight date means that the secretive bomber program is likely moving along smoothly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cA lot can happen in two years. But if they feel that confident about the schedule it\u2019s a good sign that things are on course,\u201d said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The short timeline between the contract award to Northrop Grumman in 2015 \u2014 which withstood a Boeing-Lockheed protest in 2016 \u2014 and first flight in 2021 could be a sign the B-21\u2019s air vehicle design is a smaller version of the B-2 Spirit, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhich, of course, would mean a lot less risk and reasonably fast schedule,\u201d Aboulafia said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a reason for the airframe itself to have to change radically. It\u2019s everything else about it that needs to be modernized, and it seems they think they can make do with a smaller system with less range. If you accept that thinking as the likely reality, then that would make for less risk and a relatively short development schedule. That all makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, it is possible that there have been major design changes, in which case it\u2019s likely that several sub-scale or even full-scale demonstrators will fly before 2021, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Roman Schweizer, an analyst of Cowen Washington Research Group, said a 2021 first flight is a \u201csignificant new data point\u201d that meshes well with the company\u2019s projected schedule of the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe believe the next major milestone for the program will be a Production Readiness Review that will clear the way for manufacturing the first prototype aircraft. Based on the program&#8217;s next R&amp;D funding step-up, we expect this could happen sometime later this calendar year to allow manufacturing to begin in FY20,\u201d he wrote in an email to investors on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In March, Bloomberg reported that procurement spending for the B-21 program would start in FY22 with $202 million in funding, shooting up to $2.4 billion the following year and $3.3 billion in FY24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat could mean Low-Rate Production in FY23,\u201d Schweizer wrote. \u201cThat would also make sense after flight test evaluations of the prototype (and possibly several others).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force has kept tight hold on details related to the Raiders development, keeping much of its budget in the \u201cblack\u201d or classified portion of the funding request. The last major B-21 related disclosure was the December 2018 announcement that the program had completed its critical design review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilson\u2019s statements follow Acting Secretary of the Air Force Matt Donovan\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.af.mil\/News\/Article-Display\/Article\/1912590\/donovan-visits-b-21-x-37b-facilities-l3-harris-technologies\/\" target=_blank>visit to Northrop\u2019s B-21 Design and Development Headquarters<\/a> in Melbourne., on July 19. Donovan was accompanied by Randy Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which is responsible for executing the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe look forward to receiving the B-21 on time and incorporating it into our future force,\u201d Donovan said after the visit. \u201cThe B-21 will be a significant component of our Air Force as we continue to modernize to meet the National Defense Strategy and is a game-changing capability to win the high-end fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark your calendars for Dec. 3, 2021. Maybe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":77600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","home","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,160,12,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-39071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-industry","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"PWTZWT32XNFVTCROZGIQLMURRA","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2019\/07\/25\/coming-in-2021-the-b-21-raiders-first-flight\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Coming in 2021: The B-21 Raider\u2019s first flight? - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark your calendars for Dec. 3, 2021. 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