Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider (LRS-B)

flateric said:
www.deseret.com

B-2 BOMBER LOOKS NO BIGGER THAN BUG ON RADAR, A.F. SAYS

The B-2 Stealth bomber is 69 feet long, 17 feet high and has a wingspan of 172 feet, but on a Soviet radar monitor the aircraft would appear to be an object no bigger than an insect. The Air Force on Wednesday revealed the bomber's radar cross section as it continued its campaign to bolster...
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The question is what happens with your RCS when Missouri insects of all sizes begin to smash on your leading edge and windshield on takeoff.
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Given the size and hardness of some Missouri insects (Junebugs especially), I'd be more worried about them taking out an engine or windshield!
 
flateric said:
www.deseret.com

B-2 BOMBER LOOKS NO BIGGER THAN BUG ON RADAR, A.F. SAYS

The B-2 Stealth bomber is 69 feet long, 17 feet high and has a wingspan of 172 feet, but on a Soviet radar monitor the aircraft would appear to be an object no bigger than an insect. The Air Force on Wednesday revealed the bomber's radar cross section as it continued its campaign to bolster...
www.deseret.com www.deseret.com

The question is what happens with your RCS when Missouri insects of all sizes begin to smash on your leading edge and windshield on takeoff.
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Perhaps time take-offs when insects are sleeping.
 
I did read and heard USAF/NGC are planning on upgrading B-2's via PDM with B-21 OML LO tech and if it reduces maintenance, all the better, makes a lot of sense. I just cannot believe that USAF wants to still retire the B-2's by 2030, but you never know. Only 189 F-22s, bonehead decision, upgrading the F-15 (EX) with FBW, excellent decision but it took a foreign Allie purchase program to push the development. You never know what to expect next.
 
Hydroman said:
I did read and heard USAF/NGC are planning on upgrading B-2's via PDM with B-21 OML LO tech and if it reduces maintenance, all the better, makes a lot of sense. I just cannot believe that USAF wants to still retire the B-2's by 2030, but you never know. Only 189 F-22s, bonehead decision, upgrading the F-15 (EX) with FBW, excellent decision but it took a foreign Allie purchase program to push the development. You never know what to expect next.
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The problem with the B-2 fleet is how small it is. Elimination of an entire aircraft type always makes for a lot of training and maintenance savings, and there isn’t anything a B-2 can do that a B-21 (or perhaps two) couldn’t do as well. I am however all for spending any money saved from B-2 retirement on a B-21 production increase.
 
The first B-21 is supposedly close to a production representative vehicle. Is anyone surprised that there doesn't seem to be any photographic evidence that it has a system like DAS? You would think that the AF would want to enhance SA, especially since the view for the pilots are restricted.
 
B2Blain said:
The first B-21 is supposedly close to a production representative vehicle. Is anyone surprised that there doesn't seem to be any photographic evidence that it has a system like DAS? You would think that the AF would want to enhance SA, especially since the view for the pilots are restricted.
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Maybe they're just like the ads on vans. You can't see in but you can see out. rear-window-print-adelaide.jpg
 
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Josh_TN said:
The problem with the B-2 fleet is how small it is. Elimination of an entire aircraft type always makes for a lot of training and maintenance savings, and there isn’t anything a B-2 can do that a B-21 (or perhaps two) couldn’t do as well. I am however all for spending any money saved from B-2 retirement on a B-21 production increase.
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We definitely need 100 to 200 B-21s but as an example on the B-2, we did two 30 year accelerated life, structural fatigue tests on one of the structural birds with only minor structural damage/degradation. The B-2's internal systems are very reliable with the majority of maintenance costs are in LO upkeep. The B-2 has plenty of life left and if it can benefit from B-21 LO tech then upgrade them, makes sense with all of the global tensions going on right now.
 
Hydroman said:
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We definitely need 100 to 200 B-21s but as an example on the B-2, we did two 30 year accelerated life, structural fatigue tests on one of the structural birds with only minor structural damage/degradation. The B-2's internal systems are very reliable with the majority of maintenance costs are in LO upkeep. The B-2 has plenty of life left and if it can benefit from B-21 LO tech then upgrade them, makes sense with all of the global tensions going on right now.
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The B2 went 166% of design spec before we broke a spar during destruction testing. EDIT: The destruction test was done AFTER the air-frame had been through it lifetime cycle tests which showed no design limitations or weakness. The destruction test was the second round of testing. It took quite awhile for it to finally break. I saw it on video since nobody could be in the bay for safety reasons. It was LOUD! The main problem I see with keeping the B2 fleet is the lack of spare parts like AMAD, etc, due to vendors gone and the 1553 Multiplex bus systems in the plane require a lots of integration testing which limits the cost effectiveness of avionics systems upgrades. The B21 has an open system which allows for add-ons almost like a plug and play system. This drastically changes the game. If we'd built 160-200 B2s we'd probably have upgraded the Avionics suite on the birds. Now, we have too few birds to go through the trouble and costs. The B2 systems were what we had in 1980 considering the computer tech, it works pretty damn well considering.
 
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Cancerman said:
The B2 went 166% of design spec before we broke a spar during destruction testing. The main problem I see with keeping the B2 fleet is the lack of spare parts like AMAD, etc, due to vendors gone and the 1553 Multiplex bus systems in the plane require a lots of integration testing which limits the cost effectiveness of avionics systems upgrades. The B21 has an open system which allows for add-ons almost like a plug and play system. This drastically changes the game. If we'd built 160-200 B2s we'd probably have upgraded the Avionics suite on the birds. Now, we have too few birds to go through the trouble and costs. The B2 systems were what we had in 1980 considering the computer tech, it works pretty damn well considering.
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I agree, you and I worked on an aircraft that was well ahead of its time. You would probably know this better than me, I heard we did do a second round of fatigue testing or am I off the mark? I am engineering director for my current company and we are licensed to build quite few B-2 parts and components (structural, hydro, fuel, control panels, etc), the composite parts have been the most difficult finding suppliers but we have and the parts are coming in. I do think our bird has plenty of life left in it.
 
DMS was a big FUBAR since the program start, DMS-M was a fiasco, ended in just display mods, hence...
 
flateric said:
DMS was a big FUBAR since the program start, DMS-M was a fiasco, ended in just display mods, hence...
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Most everything I hear fourth hand anecdotally about the B-2s ESM and ECM is very negative. I suspect an F-35 is leaps and bounds in front of the B-2 in that respect, and one assumes the B-21 as well. RCS reduction is probably only mildly better but much more maintainable (my personal guess).
 
The B-21 MLG seems to be simpler than the B-2, the MLG doors seem to be attached to the MLG itself, no door sequencing required, B-2 was more complicated, I was involved in sequencing, control and development testing of the B-2 gear system, early work done in the FCHIL. Keep it simple and reduce complexity.
 
Hydroman said:
If you look at photos of the two B-2 structural test articles and their MLGs, you will see two-wheeled bogies with larger tires, almost looks like the -21, NGC may have gotten the idea from these structural test birds.
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I hardly doubt _this_ was intended to be retracted inside MLG bays ever
 

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flateric said:
I hardly doubt _this_ was intended to be retracted inside MLG bays ever
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Of course these were not intended to retract into the B-2 bays, I was using these as an example for the -21 since it is a smaller bird and 4-wheeled bogeys were not feasible. Did my first response state these gears retracted into the B-2 bays?
 
Will it be the case that a number of B-21s will be in operation without retirements of B-1 or B-2? While the USAF is vague about the exact date of retirement of either the B-1 or B-2, the earliest figure I've seen is the early 2030s. I would assume that there will be an operational wing of B-21s (or at least a squadron) by 2030 - will other bombers be retired one for one as this happens? Will a new wing be created or will an existing B-1 wing at Dyess receive the aircraft?
 
Josh_TN said:
Will it be the case that a number of B-21s will be in operation without retirements of B-1 or B-2? While the USAF is vague about the exact date of retirement of either the B-1 or B-2, the earliest figure I've seen is the early 2030s. I would assume that there will be an operational wing of B-21s (or at least a squadron) by 2030 - will other bombers be retired one for one as this happens? Will a new wing be created or will an existing B-1 wing at Dyess receive the aircraft?
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I'm guessing that the change will be squadron by squadron, with B1 squadrons changing over as soon as there are enough B21s to replace their B1s.
 
Any pics of todays flight? Have been refreshing all my usual sources and nothing yet.
 
Bounce said:
Any pics of todays flight? Have been refreshing all my usual sources and nothing yet.
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No new pictures so far.
[...]
An Air Force official confirmed to The War Zone that the initial B-21, one of six pre-production examples the service plans to acquire, flew a sortie from Edwards today. That same individual said that this was not the aircraft's first flight from that base, but declined to say when that milestone was reached or how many times it has flown in total.
[...]
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Source:
www.thedrive.com

B-21 Raider Flight Testing Now Underway

The first B-21 is now flying test sorties from Edwards Air Force Base, where it arrived after its maiden flight late last year.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com
 

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