Video Above: New Army-Raytheon Radar Can Track and Destroy Maneuvering Cruise Missiles
By Joseph Trevithick,War Is Boring
The U.S. Air Force has been especially tight-lipped about the specifics of its upcoming Long Range Strike Bomber. The Northrop Grumman-designed plane doesn’t even have an official nickname, yet. But we do know one thing — its designation. The B-21.
This piece originally appeared in 2016.
“The designation B-21 recognizes the LRS-B as the first bomber of the 21st century,” the flying branch said in a statement on Feb. 26.
Since 1962, all the branches of the American military have used a single, common set of definitions to build nomenclature for their planes and missiles. Under the system, any new bomber should have been the “B-3,” as it follows the 1990s-vintage B-2 and the B-1 from the 1980s.
Prior to 1962, first the U.S. Army and then the Air Force had used their own nomenclatures. And in that period there was another B-21.
