Environmental protection shelters help extend the life of the aircraft and reduce required
maintenance by limiting uv exposure. Limiting snow accumulation and melt and limiting icing
to icing operations experienced by the aircraft over time. These shelters also help us generate
sorties more quickly by eliminating the need to always have to move aircraft in and out of hangars.
A photo released by u.s air force shows the scale of the shelter and it has been confirmed it is 200
feet wide. Although the dimensions of the strategic bomber have never been revealed, the shelter is
meant to house the entire aircraft and points to a similar wingspan to its B-2 counterpart
which is 172 feet.
USAF says the B-21 has been designed with sustainment and maintainability as
a top priority. From the outset we codified robust sustainability and maintainability requirements
and continue to keep those at the forefront throughout the design and development phase
of the B-21 raider program, said Colonel Jason Voorhees.
B-21 system program director and
acquisition led for the bomber program within the department of the air force RCO. Throughout
the engineering and manufacturing development phase, sustainment and maintenance personnel
have been integrated into every design decision we make to ensure technical solutions do not
inadvertently result in sub-optimal sustainment outcomes once the weapon system has fielded.
USAF has also revealed it is retiring 17 B-1B lancers from its current fleet as it prepares
for the B-21 to come online. The aircraft will be retired from the current fleet of 62 B-1s, leaving
45 in the active fleet. of the 17 B-1 aircraft four will be required to remain in a reclaimable
condition. Beginning to retire legacy bombers to make way for the B-21 raider is something we have
been working toward for some time, said Timothy Ray commander of air force global strike command.
Due to the wear and tear placed on the B-1 fleet over the past two decades maintaining
these bombers would cost tens of millions of dollars per aircraft to get back to status quo
and that's just to fix the problems we know about. We're just accelerating planned retirement, he added.
