Second B-21 Enters Flight Test In Palmdale

The B-21 Raider program completed the first flight of a second airborne test aircraft in Palmdale, California on Sept. 11, clearing a key milestone a month before the 10-year anniversary of the U.S. Air Force contract award to Northrop Grumman.

Witnesses posted video on social media showing the B-21 flight-test aircraft passing overhead with wheels retracted and followed by a Lockheed Martin F-16 chase plane.

“We can now expedite critical evaluations of mission systems and weapons capabilities, directly supporting the strategic deterrence and combat effectiveness envisioned for this aircraft,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said.
Northrop assembles all B-21s inside Building 401 on Site 4 of the Air Force’s Plant 42 complex at Palmdale Regional Airport. New test aircraft must fly out of the public airport after they have been assembled, before they can relocate to the secure area of nearby Edwards Air Force Base.

The milestone comes nearly 22 months after Northrop completed the maiden sortie of the first flight test version of the B-21 on Nov. 10, 2023.

The company has also delivered to the Air Force two more fully assembled airframes, which are reserved for static and fatigue testing on the ground. Two more flight-test aircraft have been in some stage of assembly since at least February 2022. Air Force officials say the program remains on track to clear the initial operational capability milestone in the mid-2020s.

Northrop won the $21.4 billion contract in October 2015 for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of the Long-Range Strike Bomber, which the Air Force later rechristened as the B-21 Raider. The Air Force also signed orders with Northrop for the first two-year lots of low-rate initial production.

• B-21,
• Lockheed Martin F-16,
• U.S. Air Force (USAF)