They've tested F-22s, 35s & 117s (yes they keep flying some of those 117s as testbeds) with White/Chrome:
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The U.S. Air Force just revealed its new B-21 stealth bomber
- Thread starter Forerunner
- Start date
I was stationed at Ellsworth (I'm out now) and my wife is from the Rapid City area, so I'm looking forward to seeing these things in the air when we head out that way to visit her family.
It's always fun watching the B1 come in for a landing right over I-90.
It's always fun watching the B1 come in for a landing right over I-90.
Looking this purely as a piece of advanced aeronautics and disconnecting the politics and morality of it all...
I'm curious what the flight capabilities of this thing are. If it's replacing the B-1 and the B-2 both then either it can go supersonic or the Air Force doesn't feel that's necessary anymore.
I'm curious what the flight capabilities of this thing are. If it's replacing the B-1 and the B-2 both then either it can go supersonic or the Air Force doesn't feel that's necessary anymore.
Haven't you heard? Can't have the poor's taking away America's freedom. They can join the army tho for free.
I'm sure they get butterflies but military pilots are the cockiest people I've ever met. Makes sense though, the govt isn't gonna put you in the cockpit of a multi-billion dollar aircraft if you have confidence issues.
My wife actually met one of the pilots flying for the new Top Gun. She asked him if it was cool or stressful doing all the stuff for the movie, and he replied "just another day at the office" ha. You could almost visualize aviators appearing on his face like it's CSI: Miami
The even more sad part is that most folks in the US wouldn't qualify to join.
Yup.
90% of this forum would be disqualified on the spot at MEPS because of medical reasons and/or bad credit/financial delinquencies.
Well I presume the B-21 is supposedly subsonic from a quick googling, and they are planning to replace both the B-1 and B-2 (and eventually B-52 apparently) so I guess the USAF really doesn't think it need supersonic Strategic Bomber if the B-21's Stealth Capabilities like completely poop over any existing Military Aircraft since it's the first 6th gen Military Aircraft. And having eventually just one kind of Strategic bomber will be easier to maintain than three (with one of them being an overpriced Elephant basically that needs way too much TLC). And on the Subsonic in terms of "not being able to get there in time" there is some recent news that maybe Australia or someone else could have a handful of them if Bejing ever wants to go the Russia route of pulling a Ukraine style war in the Pacific.
I just wonder how B-21's development will filter to 6th and onwards aircraft because while F-35 gets a somewhat rep in terms of budget costs (I mean right now it's a way better buy per unit than 4+ gen multirole since it's more capable of striking into Contested Airspace) it still had a very troubled development cycle Vs the B-21 being under budget. Or any other potential development of any vehicle Military or Non-Military (like think Spacecraft development).
You pretty much nailed it in one. Sixth-gen tech combined with stealth means if you're in an adversary aircraft, you die without any warning you're in danger. Maybe 2 or 3 seconds of RWR alarm and then boom, no time to even roll your aircraft to start defending. Hell, it's already like that with the F-35/AWACS datalink, sixth-gen datalinks will just proliferate that and make it much, much easier to coordinate. They can always un-mothball the B-1 from the boneyard (heh) if there ever is a requirement for a supersonic bomber, at least until a new one can be developed.
I hate the "this is why we don't have universal healthcare" because it's not true. This is what rich people want you to think. The United States can afford to give everyone free healthcare AND maintain the most technological advanced military in the world by a wide margin AND do even more if the rich and corporations actually paid what they should. Yes. Debate whether the money should be spent. But it's not an either or thing.
It partially is in a way. Several lawmakers, and often general sentiment, have said that if universal healthcare was enacted, recruitment numbers for the military would go down.
We could have universal healthcare even if the rich and corporations didn't pay any more. The country's budget doesn't work like a household's.
And many of those medical reasons for disqualifying folks make no sense.
Bad credit doesn't immediately disqualify you. I had a friend join that had incredibly bad credit and debt. He just needed to show that he we actively paying on it.
If recruitment numbers went down then this type of plane would be useful in lieu of more troops. Recruitment issues are a problem for the army or navy but wouldn't really be an issue when flying bombers with a crew of two and fewer maintenance staff than its predecessor.
Sure but the military would have less support staff and other troops. The pilots and maintenance crews need medical, dental, and other support.
Recruitment issues are a problem for all major branches. Retaining folks is hard for them too. Many lawmakers aren't exactly eager take away one of the benefits even if everyone deserves healthcare. Especially as the pool of eligible folks keeps getting smaller.
True. My point is just that for a wealthy country with fewer troops the shift would be toward silver bullets like this, advanced drones, MLRS, and submarines while focusing less on 4th generation planes and combat troops.
Kinda amazing how similiar these things still look compared to the first prototype used by germany at the end of WW2
Northrop's flying wing designs are probably more relevant seeing as they were produced by the same company and predate the Horten Ho 299. The claims that the Horten was designed as a stealth plane are almost certainly pure bullshit too.
Ya I'm pretty sure all the claims Horten and Co made about the Ho was just resumé boosting in hopes of not working for the USSR.
That's also my theory,at least 80% of UFO sightings could be explained by that.I'm convinced all UFO sightings in the desert were just low-RCS prototype aircraft
Take the F117 for example
Imagine seeing a Harrier Jet before it was unveiled and seeing it stop mid air,i would freak the hell out.
I can only imagine the crazy prototypes that haven't been unveiled yet.
It depends on what job to be honest.
You are not getting secret or top secret clearance with bad credit unless the military loosened their requirements for certain jobs since I left the service.
Serious question, what is the use case for bombers when we have cruise missiles, icbms, drones and satellite reconnaissance?
Lmao yeah I was reading yesterday the B52 is expected to serve until 2050, at which point the planes will be like 90 years old...
Lmao yeah I was reading yesterday the B52 is expected to serve until 2050, at which point the planes will be like 90 years old...
You see those coming and either intercept them or in the case of ICBMs, launch your own. Russian cruise missiles and drones are getting shot down over Ukraine constantly.
TIME: The making of the U.S. military's new stealth bomber
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Exclusive: The Making of the Military's New Stealth Bomber
The U.S. is making a massive, strategic gamble that hasn't paid off in the past
time.com
You can get both as long as you are showing that you are current with payments or trying to rectify it. The friend I'm speaking about was in IT and needed top secret clearance. My brother didn't have the best, even some delinquent bills, and was in intel as well. They very much prefer you don't have any problems, of course haha.
Though, this is for another thread really.
Cruise missiles only work when you know beforehand where and what to aim at, and with early warning radar are only valid against fixed targets. Even for advanced models that can shortly loiter, they aren't something you can use against targets of opportunity. ICBMS have no use-case as a conventional weapon, they only launch when the world is ending. Drones are subject to electronic warfare, and raise the ethical and developmental nightmare of if the link to the operator is severed, should it autonomously be allowed to use lethal force. Even for purely surveillance we've seen how Iran was able to forcibly land RQ-170. Lastly Satellite flight paths and positions are known and tracked, and for anything not in geosynchronous orbit you only have very little observation time over a given area.
Even the stealth blackhawk everyone knows they used during the Bin Laden raid still isn't officially revealed, right? Pretty wild
Time sure has fallen when blatant grammar errors seep through into major articles:
Many suppliers remain unaware they are making parts for the B-21. Northrop engineers and technicians weren't unable to tell family or friends they worked on the program until June and even then, couldn't reveal details about what they do all day.
Many suppliers remain unaware they are making parts for the B-21. Northrop engineers and technicians weren't unable to tell family or friends they worked on the program until June and even then, couldn't reveal details about what they do all day.
What does need to be remembered is that the B2 is still the lowest observable aircraft in the world, better than the F22 despite its much larger size. The B21 is 2 generations ahead of the B2 in stealth tech so the chances of seeing it coming are miniscule.
With China potentially emboldened after Russian aggression in Ukraine its not a huge shock to see the US waving its todger around in this regard.
Though I'm sure China knows far more about it than we do already.
With China potentially emboldened after Russian aggression in Ukraine its not a huge shock to see the US waving its todger around in this regard.
Though I'm sure China knows far more about it than we do already.
It's halfway there. It's no walking tank, but it does have nuclear capability.
I can't really decide between being amazed by the engeneering that must go into one of these things to be that stealthy, or worried about what it can do and to who. I like the plane, I don't like what it's for.
To this in perspective, the B2's radar signature is the size of a tennis ball. A significantly smaller and more advanced stealth bomber like the raider will be more along the lines of a golf ball or maybe even a marble. Even if a peer army knows it's in theater, they're going to have a helluva time intercepting or locating a B21, especially if air superiority in the conflict area has been established beforehand. Its successors will probably be even more ghost like and without pilots if not fully autonomous.
Even if this doesn't prevent us from having universal healthcare in the way you describe, it's still fucking stupid and tragic that we throw money at this dumb shit and not at something important, useful, and lifesaving...like universal healthcare. Like, this is the priority. Fuck that.
I thought it was amazing when I found out about them reviving the F117 and updating it a bit to test modern stuff.They've tested F-22s, 35s & 117s (yes they keep flying some of those 117s as testbeds) with White/Chrome:
Strategic level weapons are a necessary evil to cancel out other strategic weapons. Same reason you don't have to like the money spent on the Ohio class but it exists for an important reason, and keeps the world a bit safer overall.
It would be nice to exist in a world where the cold war is undone and everyone agrees to not pursue these capabilities but we don't. It's more relevant than ever sadly as Ukrainians are put into mass graves by a country that promised them security in exchange for giving up their nuclear weapons.
This aircraft is not inherently necessary nor will it keep the world "safer." Brink gamesmanship doesn't make the world safer and all the countries caught in between end up being greatly harmed. We'll find someone to use them on even if it's not the country that we are meaning to deter.
This is really too bad. By the time we learn all the amazing tech details, they won't be as impressively cool anymore.
Still, I can't but be amazed at military aircraft like this. The hardware and engineering is somehow just sexy, even before you see the hot curves on this new B-21.
This. It's a death machine that will make the world worse, not safe.
People commenting on how amazing this plane is, your tax dollars went towards it. Are you all very happy? I bet when America creates an actual Death Star you will will be commenting on its sexy curves.
Estimated cost per B-21 is 700 million usd. The original Pepsi for the Harrier deal was 7,000,000 Pepsi points but later changed to 700,000,000. Cost of the Harrier offered at the time was about $40 million. So if 700,000,000 pepsi points were needed for $40 million that would be about 12.25 billion Pepsi points I think?
That is one sexy fuckin aircraft. Must have been cool to work in it.
My dad used to inspect aircraft engines and he remembers when they brought him the B2(?) engine to inspect. They brought the engine in completely covered and did not allow anyone else inside the room except for him while he was inspecting it.
My dad used to inspect aircraft engines and he remembers when they brought him the B2(?) engine to inspect. They brought the engine in completely covered and did not allow anyone else inside the room except for him while he was inspecting it.
The B-21 Raider and the future of the Air Force bomber force
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New Images
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B-21 Raider Seen From Above In New Image
As the B-21 creeps towards its first flight, still slated for later this year, we are getting new looks at it and new insights.
www.thedrive.com
View: https://twitter.com/usairforce/status/1633152057967276052?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
They're being very careful to keep the rear of the aircraft hidden as long as possible - no repeat of the Cessna overflight this time!
aviationweek.com
The Story Behind Aviation Week’s B-2 Rollout Photo Scoop | Aviation Week Network
William B. Scott tells the story behind late senior engineering editor Michael A. Dornheim’s legendary overhead photo scoop at the rollout of the B-2 bomber.
aviationweek.com
