In 1988 the B-2 officially joined the ranks
of the US Air Force's bomber fleet. The world's first stealth bomber, the B-2
was designed to penetrate deep into enemy territory and strike at targets no other aircraft
could possibly hope to reach and survive. With three decades worth of stealth technology
under its belt, America's Northrop Grumman aerospace and defense company is now set to
deliver the US Air Force's next stealth bomber, the B-21. Hello, and welcome to another episode of The
Infographics Show- today we're taking a look at all we know about the ultra secretive B-21. Secret barely describes the B-21. The US has traditionally been extremely protective
of its stealth planes, and with good reason. In 2008 after a year long operation, Chinese
hackers successfully penetrated a few American contractor's secure networks and managed to
steal some design secrets of the F-35. Years later, those exact same design features
showed up in China's attempt at a 5th generation fighter, the J-31. Yet while there's serious and multiple reasons
to doubt China could manage to build a fleet of J-31s that could be on par with American-made
F-35s, China's pilfering of F-35 secrets is not something the US is willing to repeat. Thus the B-21 Long Range Bomber program has
been wrapped in so much secrecy that even American congressmen have expressed serious
frustration with the program. In 2017 the late US senator John McCain railed
against the Department of Defense in a hearing after even the armed services oversight committee
was denied information on additional spending for the B-21 program. As one analyst jokingly put it, “Well, we
know it can fly.” And fly it can- really, really high. In 2016 Northrop Grumman released a single
promotional image of the B-21 Raider, revealing a flying wing design much like the B-2 stealth
bomber, but unlike the B-2 the B-21 does not have the kite-like body of the B-2. From this single design feature we can ascertain
that the B-21 is meant to fly much higher than the B-2, at minimum in excess of 60,000
feet (18,288 meters). That's because the B-2 was originally designed
to fly at this height and had a body designed without the kite-shape it has now, and closer
to the B-21 Raider- but late into the development program a nervous US Air Force grew fearful
of stealth technology. Not knowing how effective the technology would
be in the long run, or how fast rivals could develop technology to detect a stealth bomber,
the US Air Force grew cold feet at the thought of investing hundreds of billions of dollars
into a next-generation bomber who's only defensive measure was stealth. Thus they forced Northrop Grumman to re-design
the plane so that it could fly low to the ground if need be in order to avoid radar
the way non-stealth planes do: flying low and fast. This design change necessitated an expansion
of the aircraft's fuselage to accommodate more fuel required for low altitude flight
and help generate lift, giving us the B-2's distinctive kite shape. But as history has shown us, the US Air Force
should have had more faith in their plane. While peer competitors such as Russia and
China have developed more advanced radar and remote sensing technology, the likelihood
of not just tracking but getting a weapons-quality lock on an American B-2 is extremely low. The best method of tracking and engaging a
stealth plane is to use an infrared targeting sensor, but these require very close proximity
to the target aircraft and give an operator a field of view similar to trying to scan
the entire sky while looking through a straw. Confident in new developments in radar absorbent
materials and other classified stealth breakthroughs, the US Air Force has this time given the go-ahead
for the B-21 Raider to remain an extremely high altitude aircraft, apparent in the plane's
design and reduced fuel load (as it takes less fuel to fly at higher altitudes). While its maximum ceiling is still classified,
it's a safe guess that the B-21 will fly at minimum the 60,000 feet the B-2 was always
meant to reach but never did. The B-21 Raider however will be much more
than just a bomber, although it will be nuclear capable as current B-2s are. The Raider is also designed to be an airborne
communications node, loitering deep in denied airspace and relaying data from its own powerful
sensors to other aircraft or even satellites. It will also be able to network between various
American military assets, sharing data between squadrons of planes and giving every US plane
in the air a complete picture of the battlespace. This means that a B-21 will be able to loiter
over hostile airspace and detect enemy aircraft or ground installations, then thanks to advancements
in US battlespace networking, it will even be able to direct long-range missiles fired
by other American aircraft safely outside of harm's way to their targets. While the F-35 has similar capabilities, it
cannot fly as high as the B-21 will, and with its very high perch a Raider will be able
to see far more than an F-35. Another thing we can confirm about the B-21
Raider thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request is that each aircraft will be
able to be operated manned or remotely, something no other aircraft in the world can do. Within two years of reaching initial operational
capability, each B-21 in the US fleet will have the ability to be remotely piloted or
even have it fly nearly completely autonomously, bringing a human into the loop to make final
targeting decisions. This will allow the Raider to fly into the
most hostile and denied air spaces in the world without risking American lives, threatening
targets that current peer competitors might have assumed for a long time to be unassailable
due to the risk involved. The US Air Force has plans to purchase 100
B-21s, and fully confident in its stealthy features it has shown no signs of getting
cold feet at the last minute. This will be critical to achieving the Air
Force's goal of acquiring 100 of these super-advanced aircraft, as the B-2 is notoriously expensive
running up to 1.5 billion dollars a piece. This staggering cost is why the American B-2
fleet has always remained so small, at just 20 today. Yet the B-21 Raider is not expected to reach
these astronomical costs given that the reason the B-2 became so expensive is because it
never reached economy of scale- the US government simply did not purchase enough that Northrop
Grumman could mass-produce them cheaply. With 100 B-21s on order, each individual aircraft
will become cheaper to buy as more are built and manufacturing techniques are perfected. Yet the total price tag for the B-21, or what
each initial plane may end up costing are kept tightly under wraps, with the Department
of Defense denying even the American congress any insight into total costs, citing national
security reasons. America's B-2 stealth bomber is projected
to remain in service for another two decades to come, yet with Edwards Air Force Base officially
becoming the test site for the B-21 just this year, it's likely that within the next few
years the B-2 will be sharing the skies of the world with it's next-of-kin, the B-21
Raider Long Range Bomber. While its full potential will remain a secret,
much like the B-2, its clear that the B-21 is set to become a revolutionary aircraft
the likes of which the world has never seen. What do you think the B-21 may be capable
of? Does the public deserve more details about
something their tax dollars are paying for? Let us know in the comments . Also, be sure
to watch our other video called – Why Does the B2 Stealth Bomber Cost $2 Billion? Thanks for watching, and as always, don't
forget to like, share and subscribe, and as ever, see you next time.
