The appearance of the new generation of the US Air Force bomber B-21 "Raider" is probably the most watched military news last weekend. According to China Youth Network , the B-21 stealth bomber developed by Northlorop Grumman was first released at the US Air Force Factory No. 42 in Palmdale, California. This fighter jet, which was once speculated by all parties as a revolutionary technological breakthrough, has finally been presented to the world in a way that "with and only frontal photos".
B-21 "Ragger" stealth bomber unveiled on
Recall the public time of the previous generation of US stealth bomber B-2, which was at the end of the Cold War in 34 years ago. In other words, the Americans have not developed a new generation of bombers for decades, which has to a considerable extent hanged the outside world's "appetite". Many people speculated about how sci-fi the new bomber opportunity of the US military is. However, when B-21 "reveals the veil", many people may feel disappointed, that is, this fighter does not seem to bring much novelty to the world.
active B-2 "Ghost" stealth bomber
Recall that thirty-four years ago, when the B-2 "Ghost" bomber made its debut, the extremely avant-garde aerodynamic layout of the aircraft lit up the eyes of all walks of life. This is the first jet bomber in human history to adopt a tailless flying wing layout. But now the appearance of the B-21 does not have that kind of impact at all, or it can only be said to be boring. In a way, the B-21 is like a "low-priced version of the B-2". In order to reduce production and procurement costs, the former is a circle smaller than the latter, and the appearance does not change much. Can this be understood as "the degree of progress in the United States' bomber technology is not as large as the outside world expects"?
B-2 laid the foundation for the basic configuration of modern all-stealth bombers
We know that the aerodynamic appearance design determines the various basic performances of an aircraft to a considerable extent, and the shape of the B-21 does not change much compared to the B-2, which means that it basically follows the B-2's idea. In this way, the most direct explanation is that there are no major technological progress that is truly revolutionary.
suborbital aircraft imagination
Compared with various traditional bombers, the biggest advantage of B-2 bomber , which was born in the late Cold War, is not the bomb load capacity and range, nor the flight speed or altitude, but the radar stealth effect brought by the use of flying wing layout and special stealth coating, as well as the resulting high-efficiency penetration capability. As time entered the 21st century, people's expectations for the performance of the new generation of stealth bombers have improved to a certain extent. It is speculated whether stealth performance can be combined with the flight capabilities of supersonic or hypersonic ; whether an unmanned stealth bomber using artificial intelligence technology can be developed; whether aerospace suborbital flight capabilities can be achieved, etc.
B-2 is rare due to the high cost
But in B-21, we don’t seem to see such leapfrog technological progress. To be fair, for the US Air Force, which is being chased by the air force of emerging countries, developing a team of bombers with stronger stealth capabilities may be quite urgent, but can bombers lacking revolutionary technological progress really meet the needs of the US military? The answer is probably still unknown. The significance of
B-21 may only be to give the US military more stealth bombers. The greatest significance and value of
B-21 to the US Air Force strategic bomber force, or it may only be that "the US military will have more and cheaper stealth bombers." From this perspective, if the US military is satisfied just because the number of stealth bombers increases, and uses this as the purpose of positioning and installation of the B-21, it is equivalent to further verifying that the United States' technical level in the bomber industry has really been "staying in place" for decades...
