B-21s Increase Flight Test Pace As USAF, Northrop Plan Production Hike

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland—The second B-21 flight test aircraft has already flown a second time since its delivery sortie from Northrop Grumman to the U.S. Air Force, as the company says the bombers are increasing their pace of tests that have validated their predictions.

The company and the service are finalizing plans on how to use congressionally added funds to increase production capacity for the bomber, says Tom Jones, corporate vice president and president of Aeronautics Systems at Northrop Grumman.

The surprise Sept. 11 flight of the second B-21 from Palmdale, California, to nearby Edwards AFB came almost two years after the first flight of the program.

“In terms of flight tests … we continue to see really low rates of discovery compared to the types of things that you can typically find in flight test, and we continue to see the validity of our digital models,” Jones said in an interview on the sidelines of the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

The two bombers are maintaining an operational tempo of multiple flights per week, Jones says. Maintainers with the B-21 Combined Test Force at Edwards are also now able to “see what it’s like to maintain multiple B-21s, and what that takes. So that’s another big step forward to getting this capability out there.

Within the first year of flight test, there had only been one software change, Jones says. Discovery so far has found “pretty minor stuff,” so the company has been very happy with the performance.

“The cadence we’re able to maintain speaks well to the performance of the aircraft,” Jones says. “And that it’s going to meet that daily flyer mantra that we’ve created for it. The fact that we’re able to do that test tempo with that test jet—not only are you not having to fix a lot of things when you’re landing, you can do the basic maintenance and [get] up and flying again quickly.”

Northrop Grumman and the Air Force also are standing up high-fidelity full-motion simulators for pilots to begin training at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota.

The two flight test aircraft have been the most visible part of the nascent fleet, but there have also been multiple ground test aircraft completed that are being used to go through stress tests to verify the longevity of the bomber, he says.

The Air Force has long said there is a need to increase the program of record for the bomber, which now sits at 100. To that end, Northrop Grumman first announced last year it was spending its own money to get ahead of the need to increase capacity. Lawmakers have since followed suit, with $4.5 billion added in the One Big Beautiful Bill reconciliation package to get ahead of a potential increase. Northrop Grumman CEO Kathy Warden during an investors conference earlier this month said there will likely be a decision on this plan by year’s end.

“We’re in discussions with the Air Force to change the rate, increase the rate, at which we would build the aircraft,” she said. “And that would create more resources being applied, first, to build the capacity to increase the ramp. And then, over time, the annual profile of revenue for that program. And we expect those decisions to be made this year. So more to follow on that.”

In the Sept. 24 interview, Jones added, “It’s a broad array of initiatives, from buildings to tooling to training. Obviously, lots and lots of supply chain investments as well. It’s a broad-based plan. There’s been enough interest in this that we’ve been looking at it for a couple years and have some good ideas. We just need to finalize it so we’ve got a detailed plan for using that reconciliation money wisely.”