America's new super-stealth bomber to be unveiled

For years the US company building a new-generation strategic stealth bomber in total secrecy has given subtle hints at what it will look like, with artist's impressions of an exotic flying wing. Now the B-21 Raider which will form the backbone of America's airborne nuclear force in the future is to be unveiled to the world on Friday. The official roll-out of the US Air Force B-21 will take place at Palmdale, California where Northrop Grumman, the selected company to design the futuristic bomber, has been developing the classified programme. Although the flying-wing shape will be similar to the B-2 Spirit bomber built more than 30 years ago, the Raider will be smaller and more finely designed, making it far more difficult to spot by enemy radar. If the revolutionary B-2 was super-stealthy in design, the B-21 is expected to be barely visible in combat operations. Much of the focus during the design stages was on survivability. With America's potential adversaries developing and deploying new sophisticated air-defence systems the B-21 Raider will need to be capable of penetrating the toughest defences without being targeted. Like the B-2 which has been used in nearly every conflict in the last 30 years, including Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan, the B-21 will be capable of carrying both precision-guided conventional and nuclear bomb payloads. With 100 B-21s planned at a cost of $550 million each (at 2010 prices), it will eventually replace the B-2 and the older B-1 bombers. The B-1 is no longer nuclear-capable. However, the B-21 will not be replacing one of America's oldest aircraft, the B-52H Stratofortress bomber which has been given numerous engine and avionics updates to ensure it stays operational far into the future. Although both Russia and China are building exotic weapon systems and next-generation strategic bombers, the B-21 will be the most advanced military aircraft ever built. "With the capability to hold targets at risk anywhere in the world, this weapon system is critical to our national security," Doug Young, vice president of Northrop Grumman's strike division, said at an air, space and cyber conference. It will also be cheaper than the B-2. The plan from the start of the programme was to design a new bomber at a unit cost of no more than $550 million. Northrop Grumman is confident it has met that target although at today's prices it is likely each aircraft will cost around $639 million. The B-2 was more than $1 billion. Costs were reduced by the use of the most advanced digital tools to design the bomber. Northrop Grumman also built the B-2 in the 1980s and the lessons learned from that bomber's revolutionary design played a key role in creating the new-style flying wing which will emerge from its previously secret hanger at the Palmdale facility. The giant US defence company won the contract for a new long-range strike bomber in 2015. It was designated the Raider in honour of the Doolittle Raiders of the second world war. On April 18, 1942, 80 airmen and 16 B-25 Mitchell aircraft flew the first raid on Tokyo after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant-Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle of US army air forces.