B-21 is the second stealth bomber in the United States and the second stealth bomber in the world. It is true that the B-21's ammunition capacity and range are not as good as B-2, but the B-21 can still carry various heavy loads including GBU-57, and the B-21 has a lower cost of use and stronger stealth.
However, more importantly, the B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber may not be just the bomber . Major General Scott L. Pulius, director of Air and Cyber Warfare at the US Air Force Pacific Air Force Command, once said that the B-21 can carry air-to-air missiles and will have air combat capabilities. In other words, B-21 Raider can also be regarded as an extra-large stealth fighter!
In order to solve the problem of B-21 escort, the United States decided to let B-21 become the super-large fighter bomber
B-21 and B-2, which can be regarded as the relationship between Fruit X and SE3. The B-21 has significantly reduced its ammunition load, which is cheaper, has lower cost of use, has more manufacturing quantity, is more maintenance-oriented, and has stronger stealth. The B-21 Raider is also used in roughly the same way as the B-2 Ghost. The tasks undertaken are deep bombing missions, both of which require throwing various ammunitions, including the nuclear bomb , anywhere on the earth.
But the Russian Fira is not as good as the current US stealth bomber force, so for the current US stealth bomber force, their most important task is to attack China in depth. The B-21 needs to penetrate through the first island chain, cross the eastern coast of China, and hunt down strategic nuclear assets such as the Dongfeng-5 intercontinental ballistic missile silo located in the inland of western China, the Dongfeng-41 intercontinental ballistic missile launch vehicle, and the Dongfeng-26 medium-range ballistic missile launch vehicle.
The problem is that long-range strategic bombing missions require escort. You can’t let the bomber break into Lop Nur alone. You can’t even send it like this even if you die? Therefore, the escort problem of strategic bomber once again became a long-standing problem for the US Air Force.
F-111 fighter bomber internal oil has a maximum range of 6,760 kilometers. In theory, a fighter with a maximum take-off weight of 55 tons and powered by two F-135 equipped with more than 15 tons of internal oil can meet the escort needs of bombers such as B-21 with an 8,000 kilometers range.
However, a vehicle with a maximum take-off weight of more than 55 tons and pursuing range has no maneuverability at all, and whether the maximum overload can be 5G is a problem. Whether the bomber's escort needs can be met requires a big question.
But this era was an era when missile was the king, and the nose diameter of the bomber is much larger than that of the fighter . Installing an heavy fighter radar is the same as playing, which means that the bomber can easily have the situational awareness capabilities far exceeding the fighter . The AIM-120D air-to-air missile with a length of 3.65 meters and a diameter of 177.8 mm is quite huge for a fighter. Even the F-22 Raptor heavy stealth fighter can only carry 6 M120Ds. But for bombers, air-to-air missile is too small, and the impact of air-to-air missiles on the bomber's range can be ignored.
That is to say, heavy bombers can easily have situational awareness capabilities far exceeding fighter jets, and can also have air-to-air missile capacity that is far beyond stealth fighter jets without any effort.
US Air Force Pacific Air Force Command, Director of Air and Cyber Warfare, Major General Scott L.Pureus, also said that the B-21 can carry air-to-air missiles and will have air combat capabilities. means that after installing radar and air-to-air missiles on the B-21, the B-21 can undertake the escort mission itself.
In the context of missile being king, the bomber-turned fighter may be a very powerful fighter. After all, the forward detection capability of 300 kilometers or even 500 kilometers, and the flying destroyer with 10 or even 20 air-to-air missiles, who doesn’t have a headache when you see it? Fighters can dodge one shot or even two shots, but the bomber transformed by fighter jets has two shots and two shots. After the fighter's energy is exhausted, they can only become lambs to be slaughtered.
It can be said that if the stealth of the B-21 is really as good as the United States said, and China's anti-stealth radar cannot detect it, it may have B-21 bomber , which has 10 or even 20 AIM-120D or even AIM-260 air-to-air missiles, , would be a fighter that is quite the leader of the Chinese Air Force. But how do you look at the B-21 transformation fighter jet? How can you feel like a sub-picture-98 transformation-128?
The problem is that is, is the invisibility of B-21 really that strong? You should know that in order to cultivate anti-stealing capabilities, the People's Liberation Army has even developed the Yunying-5000T flying wing unmanned target aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of more than 5 tons. The RCS of this high-altitude flying wing stealth target aircraft is obviously smaller than that of B-21. The PLA can make the Yunying-5000T a target aircraft, which means that the PLA has the ability to intercept B-21 and B-2.
