「突襲者」B-21.

 

 

Artist Rendering B21 Bomber Air Force Official.jpg 

 

諾斯洛普·格魯曼公司的B-21渲染圖 

類型 匿蹤戰略轟炸機

原產國  美國

製造商 美國諾斯洛普·格魯曼

首飛 2021年12月（預計）

狀態 開發中

主要用戶 美國美國空軍

單位成本 5.64億美元（2016財年，預計）

 

B-21「突襲者」（英語：B-21 Raider）或（英文舊稱：Long Range Strike Bomber，LRS-B；中文：遠程打擊轟炸機）是美國空軍研發中的遠程轟炸機，用於取代美軍現役的B-52和B-1。

與美國另一個轟炸機項目–「下一代轟炸機」（Next-Generation Bomber，NGB）相比，LRS-B更注重造價方面。現時由於美國財政的不明朗因素，LRS-B項目可能已和NGB項目合併，但相關部門一直未就此作出解釋，可是據媒體報道，兩個項目一直在同時進行，惟NGB項目可能已在過程中被停止過數次。

 

LRS-B項目計劃在2020年代中期開始製造80架至100架具高度匿蹤性能的遠程轟炸機，並且將每架生產成本限制在2010年美元幣值的5.5億美元。2015年10月27日，美國國防部宣布，由諾斯洛普·格魯曼公司獲得遠程打擊轟炸機（LRS-B）的合約。

2016年2月26日，美國空軍正式將「遠程打擊轟炸機」指配代號為「B-21」，意思是指二十一世紀的新型轟炸機。

 

2016年9月19日，B-21被正式命名為「突襲者」，以紀念杜立特空襲。 2019年7月24日美國空軍副參謀長-Stephen Seve Wilson在參與活動時表示:B21轟炸機進度良好，預計在2021年12月3日首飛. 美國新一代隱形戰略轟炸機B-21突襲者(Raider)最快會在2021年末進行首飛，但是空軍快速反應能力辦公室(AFRCO)主任沃爾登(Randall Walden)卻表示：可能性很低

2015年10月27日，諾斯洛普·格魯曼擊敗波音–洛克希德·馬丁團隊獲得遠程打擊轟炸機（LRS-B）的合約，新型轟炸機將擁有比B-2更小的機身，但保持前者的布局，計劃於2020年代中期形成初始戰鬥力。

 

目前以俄羅斯,中國與其他西方國家軍事專家所得到的資訊有限,對於B-21.最新的軍事情報,美國方面管制嚴格,傳聞設計研發小組,是極機秘的被保護工作,生活與社交,換句話說就是,”軟禁”,的方式以免走漏任何有關B-21.的訊息. ，空軍曾經B-21的測試將在加州愛德華空軍基地420測試中隊（前B-2戰略轟炸機測試站）進行。目前基地正在準備接收首架B-21的到來。,

 

傳聞落洛克希德•馬丁透過國會遊說團體在2021年度的國防預算中編列100 架B21.的採購金額預算.好滿足美國空軍的需求.

B-21.設計特點:高度的低可偵測性技術能力

可選擇「載人」和「無人」兩種駕駛模式

次音速為最大速度

按2010年的估算，每架造價限制在5.5億美元

遠程打擊能力.能夠配備氫彈.(ICBM).

 

The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is an American heavy bomber under development for the USAF by Northrop Grumman. As part of the Long Range Strike Bomber program (LRS-B), it is to be an advanced very long-range, large, heavy-payload stealth intercontinental strategic bomber for the United States Air Force capable of delivering conventional and thermonuclear weapons.[]

 

The bomber is expected to enter service by 2025. It is to complement existing Rockwell B-1 Lancer, Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit,[5][1] and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bomber fleets in U.S. service and eventually replace these bombers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America’s New B-21 Stealth Bomber Is Just Two Years Away

 

The U.S. Air Force’s new B-21 stealth bomber could fly as early as December 2021, Air Force vice chief of staff Gen. Stephen Wilson said at an event in Washington, D.C.

by David Axe Follow @daxe on Twitter L  

 

Air Force magazine broke the news. Wilson told the audience he in recent weeks visited Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Melbourne, Florida, where he was “looking at the B-21.” Northrop is “moving out on that pretty fast.” Wilson said, adding he has an app on his phone “counting down the days … and don’t hold me to it, but it’s something like 863 days to first flight.”

 

“That would put the first flight of the B-21 in December 2021,” Air Force editor John Tirpack noted. “The Air Force has said from the beginning that the first B-21 would be a ‘useable asset’ but has also said it doesn’t expect an initial operating capability with the B-21 before the ‘mid-2020s.’”

 

The Air Force still is mulling how many B-21s to buy. “We’re exploring the force structure between the B-1, the B-2 and the B-52,” Wilson said.

 

Wilson stressed that the service needs “at least 100” B-21s.

The Air Force repeatedly has said that, in the 2030s, it will retire its 62 1980s-vintage B-1 bombers and, a few years later, also will retire all 20 90s-vintage B-2 stealth bombers.

Meanwhile, the service would upgrade 76 B-52s that first flew in the early 1960s and buy at least 100 new B-21 stealth bombers. The result in the 2040s would be a force of around 175 bombers composed of factory-fresh B-21s and 80-year-old B-52s.

 

"That plan has not changed," Heather Wilson, the former service secretary, said in February 2019. "We need a minimum of 175 bombers, is what we announced last year,” Wilson added, "and that they will be a mix of B-21s and B-52s."

 

But Heather Wilsons announcement raises a multi-billion-dollar question. How does the Air Force plan to equip the five new bomber squadrons the service said it needed as part of its September 2018 plan to grow from 312 squadrons to 386?

 

Since the Air Force announced that plan, it has shuttered one F-22 squadron and redistributed the units planes, meaning that in early 2019 the service had just 311 squadrons. It would need to add 75 new units to meet the expansion goal.

 

Those units could require hundreds of new aircraft costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

 

In early 2019 the Air Force maintained nine front-line bomber squadrons at bases in Missouri, Texas and North and South Dakota. A bomber squadron typically has eight aircraft. The balance of the bomber fleet belongs to training units or is undergoing deep maintenance.

 

Adding five new squadrons could compel the Air Force to acquire around 75 extra bombers in addition to the 100 it committed to buying when, in 2015, it awarded Northrop Grumman the B-21 development contract.

 

The flying branch expected a single new B-21 to cost around $600 million. It could set back U.S. taxpayers $45 billion to equip the extra bomber units with new planes.

 

For now, the Air Force holds competing positions. One, that an expansion of the bomber force is necessary. And two, that it will maintain an inventory of 175 bombers, just enough for the current force structure. It’s unclear how the service will reconcile the two positions.

 

“The general consensus is, we don’t have enough long-range strike capacity,” Stephen Wilson said.

 

So why not just keep B-1s and B-2s flying for longer? As recently as 2016, the Air Force estimated the B-2s could continue operating into the 2060s. The swing-wing B-1s are mechanically unreliable and suffered heavy wear and tear during the air campaigns over Iraq and Afghanistan. The Air Force in 2016 assumed the B-1s would retire in the 2040s.

 

 

The Air Force is spending billions of dollars upgrading the B-52s with new engines, electronics and weapons. Similar upgrades, in theory, could extend the useful lives of five squadrons worth of B-1s and B-2s at lower cost than 75 new B-21s.

The Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies endorsed bomber upgrades. "The good news is that a pathway exists for the Air Force to grow its bomber force," institute experts David Deptula and Douglas Birkey wrote. "This will require retaining and modernizing the B-1B, B-2 and B-52, with B-21s procured additively."

 

David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels  War Fix, War Is Boring and Machete Squad. 

 

 

 

USAF’s B-21 Raider set for 2021 first flight