The start of moving ground tests for the Northrop Grumman B-21 provides another milestone on the path to a scheduled first flight by the end of this year.
The digital transfer to the aircraft from the B-2’s Advanced Communications ground station automates a function that required crews to manually input the data.
Editors discuss Northrop's exit from the U.S. Air Force’s competition to replace the F-22 and the implications of L3Harris’ acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Nearly all schedule details about the B-21 Raider are classified, but the U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have now provided four completed milestones.
Northrop's move leaves Boeing and Lockheed Martin as the likely surviving bidders for the fighter at the heart of the Next Generation Air Dominance program.
U.S. Air Force officials have not backed off predictions of a first flight coming later this year, but certain conditions and a note of doubt have creeped in.