U.S. Air Force Confirms Production Plans For Urgent B-21 Stealth Bomber Program

The U.S. Air Force has confirmed that Northrop Grumman’s aircraft plant in Palmdale, California, will be able to accommodate an expanded scale of production for pre-production variants of the B-21 Raider strategic bomber. The work load will also be shared with “some Tier 1 supplier locations,” an Air Force spokesman added. Referred to as Plant 42, the facility is operated as a component of Edwards Air Force Base, and was previously used for the serial production of the RQ-4 Global Hawk long range reconnaissance drone and the B-2 Spirit strategic bomber. The 2026 budget request for the B-21 program rose to $10.3 billion, with the aircraft expected to enter service in the early 2030s after significant delays. The program has gained growing urgency as China’s defence sector has made progress towards fielding multiple classes of stealth bomber, including one first seen in mid-June that is larger than the B-21.

The current state of the American strategic bomber fleet has made bringing the B-21 into service a high priority for the U.S. Air Force, as the B-2 and B-1B fleets have both contracted sharply, the former due to accident and the latter to age. The ageing B-52H fleet has meanwhile seen plans to modernise delayed very considerably. Issues with the B-52J upgrade program including multi-billion dollar cost overruns have fuelled speculation that the Air Force might terminate the program, and reinvest funds in fielding a larger B-21 fleet. Although B-21 is currently expected to be produced at rates of 7-8 aircraft per year, which Plant 42 is reported to be able to accommodate, the significant possibly of a major increase to the number of aircraft planned for procurement may lead the Air Force and Northrop Grumman to consider either expansion of production facilities, or establishing production at a second location.

In October 2024 Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden stated she believed that the possibility of expanded B-21 orders was “exactly what the Air Force is looking at.” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall added that he had “been open about looking at the various options they have for increasing their force size, and has talked specifically about NGAD [sixth generation fighter], and we know that B-21 is in the mix, as well.” More recently on May 20 Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin stated that if the B-52 modernisation program “goes worse than we hope, then we would need more” funds for B-21s, adding that he would “take all I can get with the funding,” for stealth bomber procurements. The B-21 provided an “incredible capability,” he added, highlighting that the program has gone “pretty well” so far in flight testing. Calls to expand B-21 production to 145 or even 200 aircraft have been made by multiple sources in the past, although the viability of stealthy penetration bombers against new generations of fast improving air defences has been increasingly brought into question.