On December 2, the United States’ new generation strategic bomber finally debuted after 34 years of planning and development. The United States should not rush to announce that there are other unspeakable secrets. Its first flight will have to wait until next year. B-21 was developed based on the previous generation B-2 flying wing stealth bomber. The U.S. Air Force held a grand debut ceremony, and all models of bombers in active service flew over the venue. Defense Secretary Austin attended the event in person and pointed the finger directly at China in his speech, saying that China is a "bigger threat" than Russia and that the B-21 is an "American-style deterrent" to China. According to the report, the B-21 is a "core element" in containing China, and its mission is to "defeat Beijing's rapidly growing cyber, space and nuclear capabilities." The U.S. Air Force has given the B-21 a very high evaluation, believing that it is "the first of the sixth generation fighters" and "has cross-generational advantages." There are only a handful of things the United States can surpass China in the field of military equipment, and the B-21 is a "treasure" it can still get, even though it is not original.
Let's compare it with B-2. It has four advantages. First, it has the "Joint Command and Control (JADC2)" function, which can share data across platforms, and has been integrated into the U.S. Air Force's distributed long-range sensor network and strike platform, which means strikes are more accurate and faster. Second, it has intelligent characteristics. It can switch to unmanned mode, and can also command the "loyal wingman" to defend the lead aircraft in combat. The third is to further improve the stealth capability, with "extremely low detectability" in all directions, while the B-2 only has frontal "non-detectability". "Very low detectability", so it can go deep into high-risk enemy depths and perform close-range strike missions against high-value targets. Fourth, the purchase price of the B-21 by 2026 is about US$750 million, while the B-2 is US$2.4 billion, and only the B-2 One-third of the B-21's maintenance cost is also much lower than that of the B-2. Therefore, only 21 B-2s have been produced, and the B-21 is expected to be produced in the first batch of 100, which can completely replace all B-2s and B-2s. and B-1B active bombers. There are also two shortcomings of
B-21. First, the maximum range is 9,000 kilometers, while the B-2 is more than 12,000 kilometers. The B-21's cross-continental attack requires more aerial refueling. This is its weakness, and its covert attack is an obvious loophole. Second, the bomb load of is less than 413 tons, while that of B-2 is 23 tons. The bomb load in one attack is only Half of a B-2. The outstanding shortcoming caused by these two shortcomings is that the single-machine attack power is much worse than that of the B-2, and more sorties are needed to complete the deep strike mission. The technical and tactical performance and quantity of
B-21 pose an unprecedented threat to China's air defense system, or even the only threat. Due to the great development of China's air force, land-based and sea-based air defense forces and medium and short-range tactical missiles, the United States has deployed h The air power of tml3 the first island chain including aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft has greatly reduced the threat to China, but their own survival has been greatly threatened by China. The main naval and air forces can only be withdrawn to the second and third island chains (pictured above), and even the Diego Garcia Islands in the Indian Ocean, northern Australia and Alaska, and even the mainland. At this distance, except for a small number of tactical aircraft Except for the support of tankers, most of them have lost their combat effectiveness. Large batches of B-21s can take off from these places. Without aerial refueling or after several aerial refuelings, they can penetrate deep into mainland China and strike strategic battle targets in depth, such as the Three Gorges Dam, nuclear weapons facilities, and bomber airports. Kendall, the lay secretary of the Air Force in the U.S. government, said that the B-21 can fly at ht without the PLA knowing anything about it. ml3 Taiwan Strait dropped mines to prevent them from crossing the sea. It is unclear whether he is a military idiot or a smokescreen.
The combat tradition of U.S. strategic bombers is ultra-long-range attacks. Naming the B-21 "Raider" refers to the B-24 bomber's long-range raid on Tokyo during World War II. U.S. Air Force launches ultra-long-range raid A codename "24-hour sprint". During the Afghan War, the B-1B took off from the United States, crossed the South Pacific, Australia and the Indian Ocean, entered Afghanistan from Pakistan to perform bombing missions, and then returned to the Diego Garcia Air Force Base in the Indian Ocean to land. The entire journey was 19,000 kilometers, with N air refueling times and a flight of nearly 40 hours (pictured above).After the U.S. Air Force is equipped with the B-21, it can penetrate from the weak points of mainland air defense in the three strategic directions of east, south, and west, and conduct close-in bombing on important targets in all depths. The air threat to us has increased unprecedentedly (picture below).
Of course, we neither need to panic nor ignore it. To prepare for a rainy day, China has been developing countermeasures for several years and has achieved considerable results. But it's not enough. More on that in the next article. In short, it’s difficult to say whether a few fish slipped through the net, but if a large number of them penetrated into the hinterland of China, they would never come back, which is the fate of the B-21.
