The world’s greatest fighter plane ... might actually be a massive bomber

The B-21 Raider stealth bomber. With air-to-air weapons and accompanying drones, it might replace a planned 6th-generation fighter in the struggle for air superiority
The B-21 Raider stealth bomber. With air-to-air weapons and accompanying drones, it might replace a planned 6th-generation fighter in the struggle for air superiority

Back in February, US Air Force general Anthony Cotton – the head of US Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear-capable forces – told a US senator he’d “love” to get more of the new B-21 Raider stealth bombers, the first batch of which is under production at a Northrop Grumman facility in California.

The general may soon get his wish. The Air Force is considering adding additional B-21s to the currently planned fleet of 100 bombers.

“I think that’s exactly what the Air Force is looking at,” Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden recently told investors.

With a bigger fleet of B-21s, the Air Force not only could expand its bomber force in the 2030s – it also could reinvent its fighter force, too. Recent advancements in missiles and drones point to a tantalising possibility: that of a stealth bomber with an air-to-air role.

When the Air Force tapped Northrop Grumman to build batwing B-21s at a cost of $500 million apiece – a price that has grown with inflation – the idea was for 100 bombers to replace the most tired and difficult to support of the bombers currently in the Air Force inventory.

They include 45 1980s-vintage B-1 Lancers that the Air Force practically flew the wings off during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the 19 remaining B-2 Spirit stealth bombers from the 1990s. The batwinged B-2s, while relatively young, are unreliable and extremely expensive to maintain. Ironically, the oldest Air Force bombers – 76 B-52 Stratofortresses that rolled off the factory floor in the early 1960s – are set to continue flying for several more decades after extensive upgrades.

If the Air Force reviews its plans and finances and concludes it wants, and can afford, more than 100 B-21s, the additional bombers could take over missions from the service’s stalled Next-Generation Air Dominance programme, intended to produce the world’s first sixth generation fighter – and so, presumably the world’s best until some other nation could match it. This summer, Air Force officials backed away from the still-gestational NGAD program after concluding each jet, out of a planned total of 200, could cost $300 million. That’s three times what a current F-35 Lightning stealth fighter costs.

The imperative to deploy stealth fighters over the vast reaches of the western Pacific Ocean – a region with few American and allied air bases – drove the NGAD’s requirements. The sixth-generation fighter was supposed to fly farther and carry more missiles than current fighters, while also communicating via radio datalink with new AI-piloted fighter drones the Air Force is developing.

The subsonic B-21 actually has a lot in common with a hypothetical heavy NGAD, minus the presumed supersonic top speed and high agility of the fighter. The bomber can range thousands of miles while carrying tons of munitions and communicating via a secure network with nearby drones.

A twin-engine B-21, 140 feet from wingtip to wingtip, won’t be very manoeuvrable; no one would get into a close-range dogfight in one and expect to live. But arm a B-21 with long-range air-to-air missiles and it might not have to dogfight in order to take on and defeat enemy fighters. Likewise, a B-21 accompanied by a flight of nimble, missile-armed drones could be equally dangerous to enemy planes.

Warden alluded to the possibility of an air-to-air role for the B-21. So did Scott Pleu, then a USAF major general, back in 2019.

“If we were to characterise it [NGAD] as a fighter, we would be … thinking too narrowly about what kind of aeroplane we need in a highly contested environment,” Pleu said. “A B-21 that also has air-to-air capabilities,” and which can “work with the family of systems to defend itself, utilizing stealth – maybe that’s where the sixth-generation aeroplane comes from.”

The Air Force’s plans are currently in flux. Maybe NGAD is out – or gets rescoped into a smaller, shorter-range fighter for European warfare. Maybe a bigger force of B-21s takes over where the NGAD seems set to fail, as a long-range air-to-air platform for the Pacific.

With separate reviews underway for the B-21 and NGAD programs, we should know soon what the Air Force plans to do. If it opts for more stealth bombers, Northrop Grumman will need to build them. “The limited production rate of the B-21 is the only thing that I wish we could do a little quicker,” Cotton said.

To deliver the extra bombers in the same timeframe the Air Force expected to receive NGAD jets – the 2030s – Northrop Grumman might need to expand its California bomber factory. Warden expressed confidence the company could meet demand. “We believe that that’s the role of industry,” she said, “to give the government options as they think about their force structure.”

If the Air Force chooses more B-21s and dispenses with NGAD altogether, aviation buffs will be mildly amazed to find that the world’s first sixth generation fighter is actually … a bomber.