新型 B-21 隱形轟炸機亮相：我們看到了什麼？

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

New B-21 stealth bomber is unveiled: What did we see?

ABC News - LUIS MARTINEZ

Sat, December 3, 2022 at 11:10 a.m.

The big reveal for the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber finally took place Friday night in a glitzy unveiling worthy of a Hollywood production as the aircraft was rolled out of a California hangar, but every effort was made to ensure that details about the new aircraft will continue to remain shrouded in secrecy.

Taking place under the cover of night, the plane emerged slowly from the hangar bathed in dramatic blue lighting that did not reveal much beyond the plane's similar shape to the B-2 stealth bomber it is intended to replace.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was among the 600 VIP's and 2,000 Northrop Grumman employees, who have worked on the new bomber for the past seven years, on hand for the big reveal at Northrop Grumman's Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

"The B-21 looks imposing but what's under the frame and the space age coatings is even more impressive," Austin said in remarks after the bomber was unveiled. "Let's talk about the B-21's range. No other long-range bomber can match its efficiency. It won't need to be based in theater. It won't need logistical support to hold any target at risk."

"Fifty years of advances in low observable technology have gone into this aircraft," said Austin. "And even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky."

The new long-range aircraft is designed to deliver both conventional and nuclear weapons while flying undetectable to advanced radars and air defense systems anywhere in the world.

"America's defense will always be rooted in deterring conflict," said Austin. "So we are again making it plain to any potential foe the risk and the cost of aggression far outweigh any conceivable gains."

Over the last seven decades that the plane has been in development, scant details have been provided about the Air Force's sixth-generation stealth bomber to ensure to avoid providing any hints of how it can remain undetectable to advanced radars.

And it has literally been cloaked in secrecy.

The first glimpse of what the new aircraft might look like came in the final seconds of a Northrop Grumman Super Bowl ad in 2015 that showed only the plane's general wing-shaped contours because it was covered by a shroud.

Since then, Northrop Grumman has released only artist renderings of a wing-shaped aircraft in flight that looks a lot like the B-2 bomber that uses that shape and the materials and coatings on the plane's fuselage to reduce its radar footprint. It's assumed the new B-21 will improve on a 30-year-old technology.

"The real differences are inside of the platform, because you can think about how much digital technology has progressed since the time we built the B-2 and the time we built the B-21," Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman's president and chief executive officer told Breaking Defense in an interview ahead of the plane's big reveal.

The aircraft unveiled Friday will begin initial flight testing at Edwards AFB in California with its first flight forecast to take place in mid-2023. For now, there are six B-21 aircraft in various stages of production and the Air Force plans to acquire at least 100 of the new bombers, with the first one entering service in the mid-2020s.

As they enter into service, they will eventually replace the B-1 Lancet and B-2 Spirit bomber fleets, joining the venerable B-52 as the U.S. Air Force's long-range strategic bomber.

Overall, it is estimated that the fleet of a hundred B-21s will cost $203 billion to develop and operate over the next 30 years, according to Bloomberg.

Unless they are temporarily deployed overseas, the B-2 fleet is housed at Whiteman AFB in Missouri. The Air Force plans for the new B-21 to operate from Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota, although Dyess AFB in Texas could be an alternate location.

In 2016, the Air Force announced that the new bomber would be known as the Raider to honor the famous Doolittle Raiders who flew the surprise bombing run on Tokyo on April 18, 1942.

Translation

新型 B-21 Raider 隱形轟炸機的重大揭幕終於在周五晚上舉行，當飛機從加利福尼亞機庫推出時，該飛機在一場值得荷里活製作的炫目揭幕儀式上舉行，但我們已盡一切努力確保有關新飛機的細節 將繼續保密。

在夜幕的掩護下，這架飛機從機庫中緩緩出現，沐浴在引人注意和興奮充滿的藍色燈光下，除了飛機的形狀與它打算取代的 B-2 隱形轟炸機相似之外，沒有透露太多。

美國國防部長 Lloyd Austin 是處身於 600 名貴賓和 2,000 名Northrop Grumman員工中，員工在過去的七年裡一直致力於新型轟炸機的研發工作，在加利福尼亞州Palmdale的Northrop Grumman 42 號工廠舉行了大型揭幕儀式。

Austin在轟炸機揭幕後發表評論說: “B-21 看起來很壯觀，但機殼下的東西和太空時代的塗層更令人印象深刻”; “讓我們談談 B-21 的航程。沒有其他遠程轟炸機能比得上它的效率。它不需要駐紮在戰區。它不需要後勤支持來使任何目標處於危險之中。”

Austin 說: “50 年來低可觀測技術的科技的發展已經進入了這架飛機”; “即使是最先進的防空系統也很難探測到空中的 B-21。”

新型遠程飛機旨在運載常規武器和核武器，同時在飛行時不會被世界任何地方的先進雷達和防空系統探測到。

Austin 說: “美國的防禦將始終植根於威懾衝突”; “因此，我們再次向任何潛在的敵人表明，侵略的風險和代價遠遠超過任何可能的收益。”

在這架飛機研發的過去七十年中，有關空軍第六代隱形轟炸機的細節很少被提供，以確保避免提供任何關於如何保持先進雷達無法探測到它的提示。

而且它實際上一直處於保密狀態。

2015 年 Northrop Grumman 超級碗廣告的最後幾秒首次瞥見了這架新飛機的外觀，該廣告只顯示了飛機的一般機翼形狀輪廓，因為它被護罩覆蓋。

從那時起，Northrop Grumman 只發布了一架在飛行中的翼形飛機的畫家筆下繪出圖像，它看起來很像 B-2 轟炸機，它使用這形狀以及飛機機身上的材料和塗層以減少其雷達足跡。新的 B-21 假設能改進一項已有 30 年曆史的技術。

Northrop Grumman 總裁兼首席執行官 Kathy Warden 在飛機大揭秘之前接受採訪時告訴 Breaking Defense 說: “真正的區別在於內部系統，因為你可以想一想自從我們建造 B-2 和建造 B-21 以來電子技術取得了多大進步。”

週五公佈的這架飛機將在加利福尼亞州愛德華空軍基地開始首次飛行測試，預計首飛時間為 2023 年年中。 目前，有六架 B-21 飛機處於不同的生產階段，空軍計劃採購至少 100 架新型轟炸機，第一架將於 2020 年代中期投入使用。

隨著它們投入使用，它們最終將取代 B-1 Lancet 和 B-2 Spirit 轟炸機機隊，加入備受尊敬的 B-52 成為美國空軍的遠程戰略轟炸機。

據彭博社報導，總體而言，據估計，在未來 30 年內，由 100 架 B-21 組成的機隊將耗資 2,030 億美元用於開發和運營。

除非他們臨時部署在海外，否則 B-2 機隊駐紮在密蘇里州的 Whiteman 空軍基地。 空軍計劃讓新的 B-21 在南達科他州的 Ellsworth 空軍基地運營，儘管德克薩斯州的 Dyess空軍基地可能是一個備用地點。

2016 年，空軍宣布將這款新型轟炸機命名為 “Raider” ，以紀念 1942 年 4 月 18 日在東京進行突襲轟炸的著名 Doolittle Raiders。

       So, the US reveal their new B-21 Raider stealth bomber. They say that America's defense will always be rooted in deterring conflict and are again making it plain to any potential foe that the risk and cost of aggression will far outweigh any conceivable gains.

Note:

Stealth technology, also known as low observable technology (LO technology) (低可偵測性技術), is a sub-discipline of military tactics and passive and active electronic countermeasures which covers a range of methods used to make personnel, aircraft, ships, submarines, missiles, satellites, and ground vehicles less visible (ideally invisible) to radar, infrared, sonar and other detection methods. (Wikipedia)