The bomber will always get through this is a famous quote by Stanley Baldwin a British politician in 1932, the phrase has taken on many meetings in the years since but it basically means that air defenses alone cannot stop a large bomber attack, the validity of the quote seems to have flip back and forth many times over the years waves of bombers and World War II faced massive anti-aircraft artillery threatening their mission with the development of extremely accurate bomb sites they were able to switch to high-altitude bombing out of the range of triple-A the development of surface-to-air missiles which could reach these high altitudes again threatened the future of the bomber, to counter that both superpowers develop supersonic bombers which could quickly fly in hit their targets and escape using their speed to increase a chance of survival, as missile technology rapidly advanced it was clear that this was not enough enter stealth, so if you can't fly high enough or fast enough to escape air defenses how about you make yourself invisible, the B-2 was a first strategic stealth bomber and pretty soon its replacement the B-21 will be taking over as of right now the first aircrafts are already under production
most people know stealth does not make an aircraft invisible but it can have the same effect at adequate ranges depending on the radar looking for it, the B-2 stealth bomber changed the game it has no missiles or flares or chaff to defend itself protect, no ability to run away from a fight and can't pull more than two G's while turning it has to rely solely on itself to survive, development of the B-21 was hampered in some ways sacrificing some of its self the characteristics for ability to perform low altitude bombing missions, the potential enemy at the time was a Soviet Union a nation littered with highly capable early warning radars despite its state-of-the-art stealth technology the United States Air Force realized stealth alone would not save the bomber from being able to carry out its mission so they changed the shape to perform better at low altitudes enabling have to fly in below Soviet radar coverage,
in the years since radar technology has improved a new solution is needed, development of the next self bomber began in 2004, the program was originally known as the next-generation bomber this was a much more ambitious program including the ability to operate independently and possibly include hypersonic technology air launched ballistic missiles and more this was eventually cancelled and replaced with the LRS-B or long-range strike bomber, the program seems to go back to the original design for the B-2 shaped and laid out in a manner to increase its stealthiness the program benefits from decades of experience with the B-2 figuring out what works what doesn't what is important for a stealth bomber to have and what isn't and where it can be improved,
many details about the B-21 are still classified but based on released information and renderings it will likely be another flying wing similar to the B-2 subsonic and have an emphasis on stealth with the shaping coating and recessed air intakes, another interesting specification for the B-21 is its ability to operate with a crew on board or remotely as a UKF it will carry a wide range of weaponry both present operational weapons and space for future ones, one real interesting question will be what kind of sensors it will have we saw the F-35 equipped with an Electro-Optical Targeting System giving it an incredible air-to-ground capability over previous US aircraft, it's likely that the B-21 will incorporate some sort of similar sensor as for radar a stealth bomber needs to be extremely careful what signals it puts out as doing so can give away its position,
the B-2 does have one the APQ-181 it's a low probability of intercept phased array radar which means exactly that being able to operate its radar while having a reduce chance of being detected, the APQ-181 was designed specifically for the B-2 and the B-21 will likely have its own similar but more modern radar, one extremely important facet of the B-21 will be communications the last two decades has seen a rapid development of methods of sharing information between units the B-21 will be able to both detect and transmit any location information back to other units and receive information from others this might not sound like much but it's extremely important previously unless a bomber could see the enemy for itself it couldn't attack they needed to fly right up find a target and hit it or it had to rely on intelligence collected by other means which by the time the bomber was in position was already dated and the situation could have changed
these new capabilities allow real-time sharing of vital information for the people who need it the most also as a side note you might be wondering why the B-21 we had the B-1 and B-2 so why not the B-3 the 21 refers to the notion that this is a 21st century bomber with incredibly capable air defense systems like PS 400, powerful new radars which can increase the detection range of stealth aircraft and technologies such as infrared search and track that do not rely on radar it's worth asking the question why build another stealth bomber you can only do so much to reduce the detection range with a stealth aircraft it's never going to make it completely invisible even if the B-21 is a hundred times more stealthy than the B-2 it would never survive flying directly over and drop bombs on a target that is well defended by modern air defenses it just isn't gonna happen without large numbers of escorts jamming aircraft and suppression of enemy air defenses, it will however be viable against an enemy with an older less capable air defence network this has been the same role that the B-2 is playing
the B-2 never went up against the Soviet Union instead it's seen combat in nations like Kosovo Iraq and Libya these nations at the time were armed with cold war-era surface-to-air missile systems and the B-2 performed perfectly not one was shot down it's safe to assume that the B-21 will be more capable at least in terms of stealth than the B-2 so it will be able to continue carrying out this role against less capable enemies for the foreseeable future but against highly capable air defense systems like that of Russia or China a different role is likely sand off range weapons like cruise missiles air launched ballistic missiles and glide bombs have allowed attacking aircraft to stay out of the reach of these increasingly capable sands but if the B-21 plans on carrying standoff weapons then what is the need for stealth ?
most people know stealth does not make an aircraft invisible but it can have the same effect at adequate ranges depending on the radar looking for it, the B-2 stealth bomber changed the game it has no missiles or flares or chaff to defend itself protect, no ability to run away from a fight and can't pull more than two G's while turning it has to rely solely on itself to survive, development of the B-21 was hampered in some ways sacrificing some of its self the characteristics for ability to perform low altitude bombing missions, the potential enemy at the time was a Soviet Union a nation littered with highly capable early warning radars despite its state-of-the-art stealth technology the United States Air Force realized stealth alone would not save the bomber from being able to carry out its mission so they changed the shape to perform better at low altitudes enabling have to fly in below Soviet radar coverage,
in the years since radar technology has improved a new solution is needed, development of the next self bomber began in 2004, the program was originally known as the next-generation bomber this was a much more ambitious program including the ability to operate independently and possibly include hypersonic technology air launched ballistic missiles and more this was eventually cancelled and replaced with the LRS-B or long-range strike bomber, the program seems to go back to the original design for the B-2 shaped and laid out in a manner to increase its stealthiness the program benefits from decades of experience with the B-2 figuring out what works what doesn't what is important for a stealth bomber to have and what isn't and where it can be improved,
many details about the B-21 are still classified but based on released information and renderings it will likely be another flying wing similar to the B-2 subsonic and have an emphasis on stealth with the shaping coating and recessed air intakes, another interesting specification for the B-21 is its ability to operate with a crew on board or remotely as a UKF it will carry a wide range of weaponry both present operational weapons and space for future ones, one real interesting question will be what kind of sensors it will have we saw the F-35 equipped with an Electro-Optical Targeting System giving it an incredible air-to-ground capability over previous US aircraft, it's likely that the B-21 will incorporate some sort of similar sensor as for radar a stealth bomber needs to be extremely careful what signals it puts out as doing so can give away its position,
the B-2 does have one the APQ-181 it's a low probability of intercept phased array radar which means exactly that being able to operate its radar while having a reduce chance of being detected, the APQ-181 was designed specifically for the B-2 and the B-21 will likely have its own similar but more modern radar, one extremely important facet of the B-21 will be communications the last two decades has seen a rapid development of methods of sharing information between units the B-21 will be able to both detect and transmit any location information back to other units and receive information from others this might not sound like much but it's extremely important previously unless a bomber could see the enemy for itself it couldn't attack they needed to fly right up find a target and hit it or it had to rely on intelligence collected by other means which by the time the bomber was in position was already dated and the situation could have changed
these new capabilities allow real-time sharing of vital information for the people who need it the most also as a side note you might be wondering why the B-21 we had the B-1 and B-2 so why not the B-3 the 21 refers to the notion that this is a 21st century bomber with incredibly capable air defense systems like PS 400, powerful new radars which can increase the detection range of stealth aircraft and technologies such as infrared search and track that do not rely on radar it's worth asking the question why build another stealth bomber you can only do so much to reduce the detection range with a stealth aircraft it's never going to make it completely invisible even if the B-21 is a hundred times more stealthy than the B-2 it would never survive flying directly over and drop bombs on a target that is well defended by modern air defenses it just isn't gonna happen without large numbers of escorts jamming aircraft and suppression of enemy air defenses, it will however be viable against an enemy with an older less capable air defence network this has been the same role that the B-2 is playing
the B-2 never went up against the Soviet Union instead it's seen combat in nations like Kosovo Iraq and Libya these nations at the time were armed with cold war-era surface-to-air missile systems and the B-2 performed perfectly not one was shot down it's safe to assume that the B-21 will be more capable at least in terms of stealth than the B-2 so it will be able to continue carrying out this role against less capable enemies for the foreseeable future but against highly capable air defense systems like that of Russia or China a different role is likely sand off range weapons like cruise missiles air launched ballistic missiles and glide bombs have allowed attacking aircraft to stay out of the reach of these increasingly capable sands but if the B-21 plans on carrying standoff weapons then what is the need for stealth ?
systems like the S-400 have incredibly long ranges but still cannot outreach weapons like JASSM-ER, however interceptor aircraft can once a bomber is detected by early warning radar fighters can and will be scrambled and fly out to intercept it a stealth bomber would likely remain undetected at these long ranges so intercept aircraft when I know it's there and not take off this can allow quick strikes without risking alerting the enemy another possible role might not be as a bomber at all the U.S. hasn't developed a manned reconnaissance aircraft in years in the late 1950s we saw the U-2 later the SR-71 with the rise of highly effective surface-to-air missile systems it became too risky to get that close with man systems the reconnaissance role largely switched to space-based assets and recently unmanned systems we've seen numerous stealthy flying wing UAVs similar and basic appearance to the B-2 the X-47B the RQ-170 and the RQ-180 for example,
it's possible that the B-21 could be used at times to gather and relay information between assets from a front-line position something not possible with Don self manned aircraft then if it's armed with weapons it could be quickly sent in to attack targets and finally it'll play a role as part of the United States Nuclear Triad carrying current and future nuclear weapons possibly the LRSO which is designed to replace the ALCM it will modernize the bomber component of the Triad keeping it a viable turn for decades to come
a major drawback of stealth is cost calculating aircraft cost is difficult but for the B-2 the flyaway cost per aircraft counting development costs averaged 1.5 Billion Dollars each when adjusted for inflation the sunk costs which does include development cost comes out to around 4.5 Billion Dollars per aircraft with inflation that's a lot of money by comparison one arleigh burke-class destroyer in 2020 cost 1.8 Billion Dollars also the cost per flight hour is higher for stealth aircraft the B-2 cost more than twice as much as the B-1B for each hour of flight most of that is due to the maintenance required for every hour the B-2 flies it requires on average 60 hours of maintenance the aircraft's stealth coating is a leak contributor to this long maintenance time it is extremely sensitive compared to non stealth aircraft requiring special climate-controlled hangars to store them lessons learned from the B-2 will undoubtedly be incorporated into the B-2 this should in theory cut back on some of the cost in constructing and operating the aircraft.
