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The Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is an American strategic bomber under developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) by Northrop Grumman. As part of the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program, it is a long-range, stealth intercontinental strategic bomber for the USAF, able to deliver conventional and thermonuclear weapons.

The classified Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program began in 2011, and the Air Force issued a request for proposal to develop a LRS-B aircraft in July 2014. A development contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman in October 2015. Boeing and Lockheed Martin, who submitted losing bids for the project, filed bid protests; in October 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) rejected the challenges and sustained the USAF’s decision to award the LRS-B contract to Northrop Grumman. The GAO report revealed that cost was the deciding factor in selecting Northrop Grumman over the Boeing-Lockheed Martin team.

In March 2016, the USAF announced seven tier-one suppliers for the program: Pratt & Whitney, BAE Systems, Spirit AeroSystems, Orbital ATK, Rockwell Collins, GKN Aerospace, and Janicki Industries.

Many aspects of the B-21 program are highly classified; the program is designated as a special access program. The Congressional Research Service noted in a report that the B-21’s technical details and specifications, such as speed, enabling systems, “size, required stealth, structure, number and type of engines, projected weapons, and onboard sensors remain classified” although some information about various other aspects of the program have been made public since 2015. A 2015 media report said that the Air Force wanted the bomber to also function as an intelligence collection platform, battle manager, and interceptor aircraft. In 2016, then–Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said that the B-21 would be a “fifth-generation global precision attack platform” with networked sensor-shoot capability. Northrop Grumman described the B-21 at its 2022 “unveiling” as “the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft.”

The F-35 program manager Chris Bogdan said the B-21’s engines would be similar enough to the F-35’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine to reduce its cost.

In January 2020, Air Force officials released new B-21 renderings and Northrop Grumman, showing the distinctive flush and blended inlets and the two-wheel main landing gear design. The drawing appeared to show a smaller, lighter aircraft than the B-2.

The program completed its critical design review in December 2018.

In September 2022, the USAF announced that the B-21 was to be unveiled in early December 2022 in Palmdale, California. The bomber was first shown to the public at a 2 December 2022 ceremony at Northrop Grumman’s production facilities in Palmdale, California. At the unveiling, Northrop CEO Kathy Warden said that the B-21 is designed with modular, open systems architecture to allow easy upgrades, and potentially, the ability to export components to foreign buyers. Warden said that the B-21’s internal operations were “extremely advanced compared to the B-2” and that the B-21 was slightly smaller than the B-2, with a longer range.

While the potential for an uncrewed flight was not mentioned during the ceremony, a US Air Force spokeswoman said the aircraft was “provisioned for the possibility, but there has been no decision to fly without a crew”.

At the 2016 Air Warfare Symposium, Air Force officials announced that the LRS-B would be formally designated “B-21” because the aircraft would be the 21st century’s first bomber. In September 2016, Air Force officials announced that the B-21 would be named “Raider” in honor of the Doolittle Raiders. The then-remaining survivor of the Doolittle Raiders, retired Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, was present at the naming ceremony at the Air Force Association conference.

The head of the Air Force Global Strike Command said he expected the service would place an initial order for 100 B-21s and build up to a full fleet of 175 to 200. Two USAF studies suggested that Air Force could increase its initial purchase from 80-to-100 to 145 aircraft. Initial operating capability (IOC) was expected to be reached by 2030.

Assembly of the B-21 takes place at the United States Air Force Plant 42 near Palmdale, California, at the same facility Northrop Grumman used during the 1980s and 1990s to build B-2 bombers. In January 2017, Northrop Grumman was awarded a $35.8 million contract modification for a large coatings facility at Plant 42, to be completed by the end of 2019; the contract announcement did not specifically mention B-21, but the facility was likely meant for B-21 stealth coating. Because the program is classified, officials released very little information about it. By the summer of 2019 it was reported that construction of the first unit was underway. In early 2021, several media outlets reported that as completion of the first B-21 approached, construction on the second unit had begun.

By February 2022, six B-21s were under construction. The first B-21 was moved to a calibration facility the following month. About 5,000 Northrop Grumman employees worked on the program as of December 2022.

As of 2022, the B-21 was expected to enter service by 2026 or 2027. It is to complement and eventually replace the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, but not the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers.

In December 2022, the cost of a B-21 aircraft was estimated to be US$700 million; at the time, Air Force officials estimated that the cost to develop, purchase, and operate a fleet of 100 B-21s over a 30-year period would be at least $203 billion.

Maintenance and sustainment of the B-21 will be coordinated by Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, while Edwards Air Force Base, California, will lead testing and evaluation. In March 2019, Ellsworth was selected as the base to host the first operational B-21 unit and the first training unit.

In May 2022, the USAF announced that they expected first flight of the B-21 to take place in 2023.

The new bomber has stayed on cost and on schedule. The Air Force has set a $500 million ceiling for the unit cost in 2010 dollars; in 2019, Northrop said the Air Force’s target cost would be just over $600 million, accounting for inflation.

The first new B-21s will be based out of Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, and formal training will be conducted there as well. Maintenance and sustainment will be handled at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, while testing and evaluation is being performed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

B-21, also known as Cerberus, achieved its first flight to Edwards Air Force Base on November 10, 2023.