Page 12 - Test Force News Today

The first B-21 flight came nearly a year after its highly publicized December 2022 debut in California.

With just twenty operation B-2 stealth bombers, the United States Air Force certainly can't afford to have any sidelined, and losing another in a crash would be in a word: devastating.

U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground is home to all manner of parachute testing. Recently, elite jumpers from its Airborne Test Force completed the initial testing for a potential new glide

A new Chinese study reveals unique missile trajectory to target B-21 bomber

The bomber’s public first flight kicks off an intensive test campaign and more funding for Northrop Grumman.

"Flight testing is a critical step in the test campaign managed by the Air Force Test Center and 412th Test Wing’s B-21 Combined Test Force to provide survivable, long-range, penetrating strike capabilities to deter aggression and strategic attacks against the United States, allies and partners." The first bombers will go to Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, which will host the B-21 training unit and serve as the aircraft's first main operating base. "...

The U.S. Air Force's B-21 Raider, built by Northrop Grumman, has taken its first flight at Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, where it has been under development as the sixth-generation nuclear-capable stealth bomber. The Air Force plans to order 100 B-21 bomber aircraft with long-range and mid-air refueling capabilities to bring conventional and nuclear weapons to U.S. forces worldwide.

Overall, the Air Force is projecting a $1 billion investment at Ellsworth to meet warfighter demands for bomber airpower.

Each aircraft to cost $550m in 2010 dollars, or about $750m in todays inflation-adjusted dollars

Just under a year after it was shown to the world, the B-21 took to the skies for the first time.