US Air Force unveils new B-21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber

Re:US Air Force unveils new B-21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber by credit_guy on Saturday December 03, 2022 @10:12PM (#33850200)

There's nuclear deterrence and there's conventional deterrence. ICBMs and SLBMs are very good at nuclear deterrence, but that's it.

B-21 (and B2) can help with the nuclear deterrence, but only marginally.

But B-21 can help a lot with the conventional deterrence. You can think of them as an alternative to aircraft carriers. Carriers carry F-18s and F-35s, with a range of about 700 miles. B2's have a range of about 7000 miles (and most likely B-21s will match that). Which means aircraft carriers need to get fairly close to China to deter. Well inside the range of China's carrier killer missiles.

B-21 can just go 1000 miles away from China and patrol there for many hours. Maybe not now, but in a few years, they'll have loyal wing-man drones with them. A squadron of B-21s and their associated drones will probably match or exceed the entire bombload of the air complement of an aircraft carrier.

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Re:US Air Force unveils new B-21 Raider nuclear stealth bomber by simne on Saturday December 03, 2022 @10:52PM (#33850419)

B-21s will not match B2's range, because of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law

For other parts, mostly agree.

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