Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall approved a plan for Whiteman and Dyess to become the second and third B-21 bomber bases, in that order, Air Force Global Strike Command announced on September 13, 2024. Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota was previously selected as the first B-21 main operating base and location of the formal training unit for the new bomber.
Edwards AFB in California is home to the B-21 Raider Combined Test Force (CTF) of Northrop Grumman and US Air Force personnel evaluating the new aircraft, including flight sciences, hardware functionality, mission systems and software integration.
US Air Force leaders and industry gave B-21 programme updates during the Air and Space Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference on September 18, 2024.
A US Air Force Global Strike Command statement quoted Tom Jones, corporate vice president and president, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems: “We’re really starting to strike up quite a cadence [and] generate two test flights in a given week. When we started this journey, we made a vow that we were going to design this system to be a daily flyer. It’s been a phenomenal year of progress, and we hope to continue that through the next year.” A recent m…
