The United States Air Force Unveils Their Newest Bomber Fleet That Costs $203 BILLION

The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman plan to unveil the latest stealth aircraft called the B-21 Raider at the company’s facility in Palmdale, California, this Friday.

“The B-21 is the most advanced military aircraft ever built and is a product of pioneering innovation and technological excellence,” Dough Young, sector vice president and general manager at Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems said in a press release. “The Raider showcases the dedication and skills of the thousands of people working every day to deliver this aircraft.”

Northrop was awarded a contract in 2015 to design and build the world’s most advanced strike aircraft.

The B-21 was made using advanced manufacturing techniques and breakthrough stealth technology. It is a sixth-generation aircraft, which Northrop Corporate President Tom Jones said is “optimized for operations in highly contested environments.”

Godddddd DAMN! $203 BILLION for one fleet of bombers. 100 jets. Roughly $2B/plane. That is the type of number that just makes me think money is fake. Imagine pitching this to the government. You have your pitch deck. You go through all the bells and whistles and the final slide is the cost and $200B comes up on the screen and it's no problem. Government just reaches for their pens. I'd rather have the plane than not have it in these uncertain times, but Jesus that's a lot of money. 

And that's how much it costs just to leave it in the hanger. I texted Chaps about this article this morning. This B-21 Raider costs $250,000 per hour to fly. That means one flight from an Air Force Base in California to a base in Japan is going to cost $1.5M. No joy rides with that thing. Might make more sense to bum a ride with the Navy and have an aircraft carrier bring it around. That's not what the B-21 Raider was designed for though. It was designed for "long range conventional and nuclear missions". 

News like this also makes me feel dumb. There are people out there so smart that they have the ability to understand high tech radar, how planes fly, how to evade high tech radar, and a million other things that I could never dream of understanding like 8th grade physics. No wonder they can charge billions of dollars for their services. One thing I think I could do better than them though...hype videos. Give me more than an 11 second teaser video