Jane Edwards
The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct a critical design review of its B-21 Raider bomber to facilitate evaluation of technology plans, weapons integration, computing power and design specifications for the aircraft program, Warrior Maven reported Friday.
Anne Stefanek, senior public affairs director at the Air Force, said the B-21 program has concluded the preliminary design review phase and the service expects to field the aircraft by mid-2020s.
The critical design review comes ahead of the formal aircraft construction phase and seeks to facilitate engineering work on the B-21 aircraft and the integration of stealth technologies such as radar cross section reduction systems, stealth configuration and coating and heat signature suppression platforms.
The service branch’s pursuit of next-generation stealth technology comes amid the modernization of air defense platforms from Russia and China, the report added.
Northrop Grumman won a contract in 2015 to build the Long Range Strike Bomber plane for the Air Force.
