First flight of newest US Air Force bomber postponed for several months

The first flight of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber will occur a few months later than the Air Force anticipated, the service’s secretary said, Report informs referring to Defense News.

“It’s slipped from the original schedule - that we were using as a schedule to manage by - by a few months,” Frank Kendall said at the McAleese & Associates conference in Washington, before noting he is recused from making decisions on the program due to his previous consulting work with B-21 manufacturer Northrop Grumman. “It’s still within the baseline [schedule] that we originally had for the program.”

In a statement to Defense News, Northrop Grumman said it still expects to conduct the B-21’s first flight in 2023, “informed by events and data.”

“The program remains on track to the government baseline for cost, schedule and performance,” Northrop Grumman said. “The program continues to focus on system maturity, production readiness and sustainment preparedness to best position the B-21 for first flight and an effective flight test campaign, leading to initial operating capability.”

The first B-21 was unveiled to the public December 2. The Air Force and Northrop Grumman never publicly provided a date for this bomber’s first flight, only saying it would follow the rollout, occur this year and be “data and event-driven.”

The first flight of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, the last bomber the Air Force introduced to its fleet, took place in July 1989, about eight months after its November 1988 rollout.