Zephyr Net

22:08 07.03.2018 (updated 22:21 07.03.2018)

The Pentagon’s highly anticipated next-generation bomber is finally ready for testing.

"For the first time ever, I would like to publicly announce that the B-21 will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base," Brigadier General Carl Schaefer said at a business conference in Palmdale, California, near the air base, March 3. "Edwards has been the home of the bomber test and now we also can publicly release that the B-21 is coming to Edwards and we will be testing it here in the near future."

The highly classified program once flew under the Long-Range Strike Bomber moniker but has since been renamed the B-21 Raider. The future Raider fleet will replace the US Air Force's B-2 Spirit, also known simply as the Stealth Bomber.

Besides a few scant details showing that the B-21 will provide some capabilities similar to the B-2's, not much is known about the plane. The Pentagon has refused to state how much the program even costs out of concern that near-peer adversaries will glean too much information about it.

One of the biggest former advocates of releasing more information about the program is Matthew Donovan, who called for more transparency about the new bomber program when he worked closely with Senator John McCain's office as a policy director for the Senate Armed Forces Committee. After being promoted to undersecretary to the US Air Force under President Donald Trump, however, Donovan completely switched his position on B-21 secrecy.

Last October, Donovan told Defense News it would be "some time" before the service discloses any budget documents relating to the B-21. Donovan said "it's funny because they knew I was the guy that was always pushing on" releasing the financial records "from the Senate side."

from : https://sputniknews.com/military/201803071062326918-secretive-bomber-raider-set-test/

- Pentagon’s Secret Next-Gen Bomber Design Faces ‘Hiccups’, US Lawmaker Says - 02:30 09.03.2018 (updated 03:05 09.03.2018)

The United States Air Force is preparing to test the secretive B-21 Raider in the near future and already the program has run into a series of “hiccups” with the plane’s engines, a US lawmaker told Defense News this week.

While acknowledging that that program is still on track and that the prime contractor has done a good job handling subcontractors, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) said the program has run into numerous challenges.

Regarding the "hiccups," Wittman, a member of the powerful House Armed Services Committee, told reporters in US capital: "this is an extraordinarily complex aircraft… The issue is not that you have these uncertainties. The issue is how you address them."

"This is a very, very different design as far as airflow and there have been some design challenges there," the congressman said. According to the news outlet, Wittman said there have been a few "snags" in the development of the plane's wings.

For its part, "the Air Force remains confident in the B-21's progress and in delivering this new capability in the mid-2020s," spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Defense News.

Few details have emerged about the shadowy B-21 Raider program, once known as the Long-Range Strike Bomber program. A US Air Force spokesperson confirmed Wednesday "for the first time ever… that the B-21 will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base" in California.

The War Zone reported that B-21 development will cost $20 billion and that the Pentagon will spend at least another $100 billion to produce more than 100 B-21 Raiders. The Pentagon, however, has previously shut down lawmakers' attempts to make the Air Force disclose program costs.

From : https://sputniknews.com/military/201803091062358031-pentagon-bomber-design-hiccups-us/

Yea what a valid source... Idiot.

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