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The United States reveals its most secretive and most powerful bomber in full military tension with China


It was not necessary to name China after the United States to send a clear message this week to its greatest Military and geostrategic competitor: introduced a powerful weapon, developed in secret over a decade, to penetrate enemy defenses and strike targets “anywhere in the world”.

Pentagon and Military contractor Northrop Grumman Detected at an air force base in Palmdale, California. B-21 bomber Raider, an aircraft designed with the latest technology to avoid the most advanced anti-aircraft defenses, which can be armed with nuclear and conventional weapons and includes advanced artificial intelligence systems to help pilots carry out their missions.

The unveiled Raider, the first the Pentagon has brought to light in more than three decades, has been met with the same secrecy surrounding the development of the B-21 Raider. It happened at 42nd Air Force Base, a fort north of Los Angeles where the Pentagon does a lot of covert military development. Reporters attending the show had to leave their phones at the entrance and photo media could only take Pictures from specific angles. For years, the vast majority of the employees who worked on the project couldn’t even tell their families what they had done.

“This is American-style deterrence,” the defense secretary said. Lloyd Austin, in the show, focusing on China. This Tuesday, his ministry presented its annual report on the Asian giant, in which it warned that China had doubled the number of nuclear warheads in much less time than the United States expected.

By 2035, the United States expects it China will have 1,500 nuclear warheads. The “accelerated expansion” of its nuclear arsenal is taking place amid rising tensions between the two superpowers. The United States has reaffirmed its support for Taiwan—one of the major points of friction and potential catalysts for military confrontation—in recent months, and the recent summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping helped establish great-power rivalry more than conceived of the possibility of accommodation.

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Austin warned of the suicide bomber’s background: “We make it clear again to any potential adversary: ​​The risks and costs of an attack far outweigh any benefits.”

Undetectable

What can be seen of the ship is that it maintains a bat-wing shape, like its predecessor, the B-2, the bomber ‘undetectable’ to most radars which, introduced in 1988, was the last major US contribution to this. Arsenal type.

The introduction of the B-21 Raider — the bomber with “sixth generation” technology according to the Pentagon — represents the great impetus for revamping a fleet small and outdated by the same military dynamics since World War II.

A significant portion of the bombers who are retained by the United States are war veterans B 52It was developed after the World War and designed as a deterrent during the Cold War. Capable of striking with nuclear weapons – although it has never done so before – it has been in service since 1955. These bombers have an average life of sixty years and the Pentagon plans to continue using them into the middle of this century.

The United States also has 45 B-1 bombers, with an average age of 34, and 20 of the aforementioned B-2 bombers, with an average age of 26.

The Pentagon’s plan is to build at least one hundred B-21 Raider, which pays homage to the Doolittle Raid, an air raid in April 1942 that responded to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor with a kamikaze operation against Japanese targets.

The cost of the B-21 Raider program is about $90 billion, with an average cost per bomber, to date, close to $700 million (it’s up significantly since its original design a decade ago).

The cost of the B-21 Raider program is about $90 billion, with an average cost per bomber to date of nearly $700 million.

At the moment, six prototypes are under construction, such as the one the Pentagon just presented. The first flight tests will begin next year, and work is now focused on validating the operation of capabilities such as anti-radar coatings. The B-21 Raider is expected to be developed missions in 2026 or 2027.

Most of the detection evasion techniques, the bomber’s strongest point, are still there under secret: It is the information that all adversaries of the United States would like to have.

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