The US Air Force unveiled its latest stealth nuclear bomber on Friday as part of the Pentagon’s response to growing concerns about a future conflict with China.
The B-21 Raider is the first North American bomber to be put on display in over 30 years.
“We needed a new bomber for the 21st century that would allow us to face much more complicated threats, such as those we fear one day from China and Russia,” said US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. when the B-21 Raider was announced in 2015.
“The B-21 has more survivability and can handle these very tough threats,” he added at the time.
Almost every detail of the program is confidential.
Only artistic renderings of the fighter jet had been released prior to the unveiling at an Air Force facility in Palmdale, California. The footage shows the Raider closely resembling the black nuclear stealth bomber it will replace, the B-2 Spirit.
The bomber is part of the Pentagon’s effort to modernize all three sectors of its nuclear triad, including isolated nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, to meet China’s rapid military modernization.
China is on track to have 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035, and gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare, space capabilities and other areas represent “the most consistent and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system,” it said. Pentagon. week in its annual report on China.
There are currently six B-21 Raiders in production.
The US Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew.
The cost of bombers is unknown.
However, in 2010, the US Air Force set the price to purchase 100 aircraft at an average cost of $550 million each — about $753 million today — but it is not clear how much is being spent.
Source: DN
