Second B-21 Flies for the First Time

A second B-21 bomber has flown from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base in California, ramping up the Air Force’s test effort for its new fleet.

The flight occurred Sept. 11, the Air Force confirmed. Aviation enthusiasts snapped photos of the B-21 taking off and flying from outside the fence line at Plant 42, where the aircraft is manufactured. Photographer Jarod Hamilton shared a video on social media showing the Raider soaring across a cloudless sky, accompanied by an F-16.  

The second B-21 Raider has flown! #b21 #b21raider pic.twitter.com/PxgOmpceny

— jmh.creates (@JarodMHamilton) September 11, 2025

Air Force Secretary Troy E. Meink confirmed the flight on social media, writing: “With two B-21s now flying, our test campaign accelerates.”

The service added in a release: “The addition of the second aircraft expands the Air Force’s testing capabilities beyond initial flight performance checks, enabling progression into critical mission systems and weapons integration testing phases.”

The second B-21 will also boost the service’s knowledge of how to maintain the bomber, which officials have referred to as the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft.

“The addition of a second B-21 to the flight test program accelerates the path to fielding,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said in a statement. “By having more assets in the test environment, we bring this capability to our warfighters faster, demonstrating the urgency with which we’re tackling modernization.”

Anticipation around the reveal and flight of the second B-21 had been building for several weeks now. Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere told Air & Space Forces Magazine in July that the second plane would fly “shortly,” and Lt. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said in August that the second B-21 would enter flight testing “soon.” 

This second airframe’s first flight comes nearly two years after the first aircraft flew on Nov. 10, 2023. That B-21 has since regularly flown from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., as part of flight testing. 

Officials have said they want to start fielding the B-21, made by Northrop Grumman, by the “mid-2020s” but offered few concrete details. In its release, the Air Force noted that military construction projects related to the B-21 will take place at three bases in fiscal 2026. Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., has already started construction as the first operational base.

Yet the exact timeline for the first operational B-21s to arrive is still unclear, and Gebara said at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies that the service is avoiding artificial deadlines for the bomber.

“That’s really been the secret sauce to the B-21 right now, is no undue pressures. Let them do what they’re doing, and they’ll get us the world’s best aircraft here very soon,” he said.

USAF said back in 2022 that six B-21s were in some stage of production. It’s not publicly known if any others have started production since. The Air Force program calls for “at least” 100 B-21s, but leaders have grown increasingly vocal in calling for more of the bombers, which are meant to replace both the B-1 and B-2 over the coming decade.