Speculative and highly provisional painting of a Northrop Grumman B-21A Raider strategic bomber in flight over the Southwestern US.
For the first time in over three decades, the US displayed a new strategic bomber design, rolling out the first prototype B-21A Raider from Northrop Grumman's facility at Plant 42, just as darkness was gathering at Palmdale. Only frontal details of the new sixth-generation aircraft could be seen, at a distance. Since the late 1990s, with the production of the B-2 Spirit having been drastically curtailed, the USAF has been looking at ways of revitalizing its increasingly aged strategic bomber force, the "2037 Bomber" concept having given way to the Next Generation Bomber (NGB) or "2018 Bomber" - this too never made it to the procurement stage, having in turn given way to the Long Range Strike Bomber program (LRS-B) that saw Northrop Grumman being chosen as the main contractor in 2015. The USAF intends to buy at least 100 B-21As to permit the retirement of the B-1B and B-2 fleets.
