Much More Than a Bomber: Why America’s B-21 Will Be the West’s Most Dangerous Combat Jet?

The B-21 Raider next generation bomber is expected to replace the U.S. Air Force’s B-1B Lancer and B-2 Sprit bombers in frontline service in the 2030s, and with work on building prototypes having already begun the aircraft’s first flight is expected before 2025. The aircraft will make use of a similar flying wing design to the B-2, but is expected to avoid many of the key problems with the Spirit bomber including very high maintenance requirements, a delicate airframe, a low sortie are and extremely high manufacturing and operational costs. The bomber will be designed for intercontinental range strategic missiles much as its predecessors were, including penetration of the heavily defended airspace over enemy capitals and nuclear sites to deliver heavy strategic nuclear warheads - which are much larger than those carried by lighter aircraft such as the B61 tactical nuclear bombs carried by F-35s fighters. To this end the bombers are being designed to operate at very high altitudes, much higher than any currently serving Western bombers, and to make use of a radar evading stealth design and modern electronic warfare systems which leave it very difficult to detect. 

Beyond its role as a bomber, the B-21 is expected to be versatile enough to fulfil a number of other roles. The aircraft is reportedly designed to be able to accommodate long range air to air missiles such as the upcoming AIM-260 and may be able to carry these for roles beyond basic defence. A full payload could mean dozens of missiles per bomber, which would capitalise on its powerful and very large sensor suite and high survivability at long ranges to engage enemy aircraft such as fighters, AEW jets, tankers and other at range. Furthermore, with the viability of traditional AWACS and AEW aircraft such as the E-3 and E-2 increasingly in question, the B-21 could use its sensors and data links to support fighters on the front line by providing targeting information and other key intelligence which fighter sized aircraft using much smaller radars otherwise would not have. The B-21’s expected use of artificial intelligence and very high computing power would allow it to process data from its sensors very quickly and single out potential threats. 

The B-21’s design is in many ways similar to the High Altitude Penetrator Senior Ice design concept of the late Cold War era, which was initially expected to influence the design of its predecessor the B-2 Spirit until fears regarding growing capabilities of Soviet sensors led the Air Force to redesign the older stealth bomber to focus on lower altitude operations. Flying higher  will allow for a longer range and higher speeds, and could well allow the B-21 to fly supersonically. Flying higher will allow the Raider to ‘see’ ground targets further away due and over the Earth’s curvature, much as the F-22 fighter can currently detect targets much further than the F-35 due to its much higher altitude ceiling. If equipped with cruise missiles, or in future quite possibly with laser or directed energy weapons, this would be a major benefit to the B-21 by allowing it to use its sensor suite over longer ranges and capitalise on a superior line of sight. A focus on higher altitude operations will also make the aircraft cheaper to construct, as considerations for low altitude penetration flights can be very costly and increase an aircraft’s maintenance requirements as was the case with modifications to the B-2 for such roles. . 

Operating at higher altitudes will also increase the B-21’s loitering capabilities as it will considerably reduce fuel consumption. This could allow it to have a similar if not greater range than the B-2 despite a reportedly smaller airframe. The ability to stay in the air longer is valuable not only to reach targets across other continents, but also to allow the aircraft to make use of mitts sensors and data links for support missions meaning a single sortie from B-21s can potentially allow the aircraft to support multiple sortie from fighter sized aircraft which have a much lower endurance. The Raider can also act asa an effective battlefield communications node to support other aircraft and process data from multiple aircraft’s sensor suites as well as from satellites and other key source - potentially revolutionising the situation awarenesses of unfits which benefit from its support. 

These capabilities between them will likely make the B-21 the most versatile and dangerous combat aircraft in the western world - potentially rivalled only by the F-X sixth generation currently under development for the U.S. Air Force. Unlike the B-2 which completed development after the Cold War’s end, the B-21 will enter service at a time of growing competition with peer level technological competitors, and will do so at a time when the U.S. is neither the world’s largest economy nor its largest filer of new technology patents. As a result there will be considerable pressure to make the aircraft as effective as possible as it will be expected to go up a range of highly sophisticated defences from Russian MiG-41 sixth generation interceptors and S-500 defence systems to Chinese quantum air defence radars.