NG B-21 gets procurement boost

The U.S. Air Force plans to spend as much as $5.9 billion over the next five years to begin buying Northrop Grumman Corp.’s B-21 stealth bombers, according to unclassified but previously unreleased five-year budget figures.

link

I went back five pages looking for a Raider/NGB thread and didn't find it, so here you go.

Things keep humming along after clearing the CDR. Looks like production starts in earnest in 2023 after they get the line set up.

a reply to: RadioRobert

What budget documentation are they looking at exactly?

Funding for the B-21 will be at 3 billion for FY20 alone while it was at 2 billion for FY18 and 2.3 billion for FY19. Just 5.9 billion over the next five years including FY20 does seem rather low.

They named the first base last week, that will need an increase in funds to fit them out.

First aircraft handover is scheduled next year, surely they are flying some now??

a reply to: mightmight

Program spending and spending earmarked for procurement are not the same thing. Procurement spending will be a slice of the larger number(s) you cited.

originally posted by: Forensick

First aircraft handover is scheduled next year, surely they are flying some now??

They aren't even finalizing the basing plan until 2021-- they aren't handing over production aircraft until "mid-2020's" which aligns with the procurement numbers in the OP. Where are you getting this?

FYI - there was some other news dropped RE: B-21

a reply to: Masisoar

Links to this to back up your claim??

a reply to: Kurokage

www.flightglobal.com...

Not that big of news.

so for the family we have the B21 and the RQ180, is the 180 going to do EW ELINT for the 21 or is there going to be something like the sparkvark?

there is clearly a high speed platform flying around but i don't think it will be in the family.

it's pretty funny we have seen a good pic of the 180 and not the 21.

originally posted by: penroc3
it's pretty funny we have seen a good pic of the 180 and not the 21.

In the 80's I built flight control surfaces for the B-2. Never saw a picture of the aircraft until one evening after work they showed one at a press conference in Palmdale.

a reply to: penroc3

We haven't really though. We've seen renderings, not no really clear pictures that we can clearly tell it's a -180.

originally posted by: penroc3

so for the family we have the B21 and the RQ180, is the 180 going to do EW ELINT for the 21 or is there going to be something like the sparkvark?

I think PEA for LRS will end up on an MQ-L type companion.

a reply to: anzha

Thanks for the link Anzha, was hoping for something more but adding to the B21 story is always good!

a reply to: mightmight

Good argument for that. On the flip side, with the Marines spending a fair sum to integrate NGJ with the F-35, it'd be sort of silly not to at least look at a dedicated EA version that could piggyback off that effort and drive that line's unit and operations costs down with commonality.

a reply to: Zaphod58

right.

but i would put my bottom $ on the fact we have seen a simi blurry pic of it, and to surprising little fan fair.

i wonder if they are going to show us some good pics soon, they didnt seem to mind 'whatever that was' being out in the wild.

mightmight: i think drones are kind of easier to conceal, in theory all you would need is like 3 crews, 2 that traveled with and one in reserve at the home base with the handful of pilots that could be stationed anywhere.

from what i gather AI systems are pretty far advanced, more than most people would think at least.

i forgot what school was working with the DOE/LLNL(or some org) that publicly announced almost 2 years ago they were simulating a rats brain ion what looked like 2 server racks.

i can imagine a better version running in a drone where it trained for almost unlimited runs/time in cyberspace and become very efficient at flying in swarms or in a persistent platform hunting targets only brining a human in the loop for permission to fire(and we do that with manned attack aircraft).

and im off the rails.....

Is the 2014 Kansas triangle in the familly ?

a reply to: darksidius

Well if what was said is true it wouldnt be part for the LRS family. At least not in the narrow sense.
But the question where it came from and why is rather interesting.

originally posted by: mightmight
a reply to: darksidius

Well if what was said is true it wouldnt be part for the LRS family. At least not in the narrow sense.
But the question where it came from and why is rather interesting.

If there were two spotted (Kansas and Amarillo) and there were two LRS-B flyoffs, could they be the two?

a reply to: Forensick

No.

Amarillo and Kansas events are still a mystery five yearts after, no new photography since that , Amarillo may be was really B-2 patrol.