FASTER, PLEASE: Pentagon Eyes Second B-21 Production Line.
The U.S. military struck a $4.5 billion deal last month to increase the rate of production on its new B-21 bomber. Now officials are considering whether they will open up an entire second production line to go even faster in constructing the sixth-generation stealth Raider.
Adm. Richard Correll, head of U.S. Strategic Command, told lawmakers March 17 that his command still believes the Air Force needs to increase its planned B-21 fleet to 145 airplanes—a figure his predecessor Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton endorsed last March. A second production line could be a way to reach that goal.
“There are, of course, investments that have been made to increase the production rate and to potentially open a second production line,” Correll told the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces. “That decision has yet to be made, but clearly the B-21 represents a really significant capability both from a conventional and a nuclear perspective.”
The current Air Force program of record specifies a minimum of 100 B-21s, to be built by Northrop Grumman at its Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. The planes are needed to replace aging B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers in the 2030s.
Aside from Bidenflation and COVID lockdown-related delays, the Raider program is progressing remarkably well for modern, large procurement effort.
But if the B-21 is to do double deterrence duty against Russia and China, conventionally and the in nuclear role, we likely need 300 of them.
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— JP Lindsley | Journalist (@JPLindsley) March 20, 2026