Northrop Grumman continues to deliver strong performance across test and production on the B-21 Raider, with an LRIP Lot 2 award late last year signaling further confidence in the program’s technical performance and progress. In partnership with the US Air Force, Northrop Grumman prioritized adaptability, affordability and producibility from program inception, with a focus on long-term successful outcomes and delivering the US Air Force a strategic deterrent to project peace through strength.
“Northrop Grumman’s decision to build the test jets on the actual production line is one example of the program strategy that’s paying dividends. We entered Production Lot 2 in Q4 of 2024, with a B-21 workforce that’s come down the learning curve earlier in production. Not only have we learned how to build B-21, we’re learning how to build B-21 better and at scale – optimizing several areas of the build for long term efficiency and affordability,” said Tom Jones, Corporate Vice President and President, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems.
Digital Ecosystem Burns Down Risk, Drives Efficiency
Early in the design phase, the B-21 digital ecosystem enabled engineers to conduct agile testing on production hardware and software, first in integration labs and later in a flying test bed. Before the B-21 ever took to the sky, the flying test bed completed more than 200 test sorties totaling more than 1,000 flight hours, testing production hardware, software and sensors in a dynamic environment and enabling teams to tackle discovery well in advance.
Through the digital ecosystem, the Northrop Grumman team has realized a 50% reduction in time to certify software in the lab. Similarly, flight test teams are validating aircraft performance in real time as opposed to days of post-mission processing and analysis. This speed and efficiency powers a robust flight test cadence.
“As a result of Northrop Grumman’s innovative technologies and diligent execution, we only had to make one software change through the first year of flight test – a testament to the early risk reduction work performed by our teams through the labs and flying test bed,” said Jones. “Now as we combine our mature digital ecosystem with proven accuracy, Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force can realize efficiency and speed in a way that’s never been done before in a major acquisition program. Bigger than B-21, Northrop Grumman is defining the future of DevOps with innovation informed by experience.”
Factory of the Future, Flightline of the Future
Northrop Grumman’s investment – upward of $2 billion in infrastructure and development effort – in its digital ecosystem provides the entire B-21 team enterprise-wide access and integration to a single source of truth in the design and build processes. Where the digital environment meets the production floor, this digital technology expedites configuration management, facilitating communication between technicians and engineers during the build, in some areas already reducing manufacturing hours by roughly a third.
In addition to the benefits of the digital ecosystem in manufacturing, Northrop Grumman’s expanded implementation of augmented reality, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence technologies are further enabling technicians planeside to drive efficiency and quality throughout the build. Northrop Grumman has leveraged commercially available technologies within a secure environment to form the highly sophisticated manufacturing facilities that are scaling into production on B-21.
The tools deployed in B-21 manufacturing today are paving the way for operational sustainment. The B-21 was designed from inception to be a daily flyer, with minimal maintenance required between missions. Decades of experience operating stealth aircraft systems, combined with the Highly Immersive Virtual Environment – or HIVE, that enables engineers to visualize how sustainment tasks will be performed by future maintainers – all informed the B-21’s design to drive affordability and support operational needs. Already, the Combined Test Force (CTF) has demonstrated ability to conduct multiple test flights in a week, a positive early indicator for B-21 as a daily flyer.
Sustainable Success
“The more we test and analyze performance, the greater our confidence that there is no single system better positioned to deliver peace through strength for the American warfighter than B-21,” said Jones.
Innovative digital technologies and advanced manufacturing processes have resulted in the B-21 coming in below the government’s affordability targets, all while successfully scaling into production and achieving technical and performance requirements. More than a bomber, the B-21 is adaptable for the future threat, able to execute its mission independently or as a force multiplier operating within a family of systems advantaging offboard sensors and platforms.
With the balance of production and test still on the horizon, Northrop Grumman is seeing less discovery and risk realization that historically drives cost due to change, driving confidence the B-21 Raider will continue delivering strong cost and technical performance. The combination of innovative technology and effective program management keeps B-21 on a path of sustainable success.
