Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and contractor Northrop Grumman both unveiled new imagery of the secretive B-21 Raider, the first glimpse of the stealthy bomber in months.
Two Air Force images, released during Brown’s keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference and dated July 31, showcase the bomber at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif., facility. Notably, one shows the B-21 outdoors, a rare sighting of the aircraft outside the hangar.
Separately, Northrop Grumman announced Sept. 12 that the B-21 has begun engine runs as part of its ground testing program and released another picture of the aircraft.
The most prominent new feature shown in the new images is an air data probe mounted on the front of the aircraft below the nose; a test item which will not be a feature of operational aircraft. The probe is angled downwards, suggesting the airplane may fly with a slight pitch-up attitude.
The images also emphasize how narrow the air intakes on the aircraft are—a marked contrast to the Air Force’s other stealth bomber, the B-2 Spirit—as well as the B-21’s simpler landing gear doors. The photos also appear to show the B-21’s flight control surfaces for the first time, seemingly three per side of the flying wing aircraft, and they seem larger than those on the B-2.
The outdoor image of the B-2 also reveals a serrated indentation on the top of the airframe behind the cockpit. The feature may be part of the air refueling receptacle system, which is in a similar position on the on the B-2.
The Raider appears to have a wingspan of approximately 135-155 feet, versus 172 feet for the B-2.
USAF rolled out the B-21, its first new bomber in more than three decades, in December 2022 at Northrop’s plant in Palmdale.
