Summary and Key Points: The US Air Force built 21 B-2 Spirits, and each one cost about $2,000,000,000. That figure is the reason the B-21 Raider exists in the form it does. When the Pentagon set the Raider’s requirements, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ordered the Air Force to treat cost not as an outcome but as a performance metric — a number Northrop Grumman would be measured against, as it is on range or radar cross-section. The target was an average procurement unit cost of roughly $550,000,000 in 2010 dollars, which is closer to $750,000,000 in today’s dollars, across a fleet of at least 100 aircraft. The first Raider flew for 90 minutes out of Palmdale on 10 November 2023. A second joined it on 11 September 2025.
The B-21 Raider Program: Cheap Stealth?
An incredible event is underway in US defense procurement. A new, sophisticated stealth bomber platform, the B-21 Raider, might actually be under a degree of fiscal discipline. Of course, that’s a relative term.
The B-21 Raider is the replacement for the aging B-2 Spirit long-range, nuclear-capable stealth bomber. And it is an expensive platform.
But the Air Force seems committed to producing the plane quickly and at a reasonable rate (again, relatively speaking).
We will table the discussion of whether this is the most relevant platform in the age of drone and missile swarms and anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
What the Air Force Wants
The Air Force designed the B-21 around a minimum of 100 aircraft.
The Pentagon has treated cost as a performance metric for Northrop Grumman, the firm developing the specialized long-range stealth bomber.
Too often, Pentagon procurement programs treated cost as an afterthought. With the B-21 — finally — the Air Force made it a requirement.
Nevertheless, the price tag is substantial.
Originally, the Average Procurement Unit Cost (APUC) target was around $550 million per plane (in 2010 dollars; adjusted to 2026 dollars, it’s closer to $750 million per plane).
This price, however, is the baseline.
B-21 Raider Bomber. Artist Rendition/Creative Commons.
B-21 Raider Artist Rendering.
It’s the cost of what it takes to move a plane off the factory floor. Nevertheless, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ordered the Air Force to make the APUC figure a primary performance metric for the program.
Compare that to the B-2 Spirit’s development, which was a horrific affair from a cost and efficiency standpoint.
Of course, the B-2 itself is an impressive platform.
But Gates’ assessment that cost must be a strategic priority in these programs as much as capabilities was inherently correct.
Sadly, the USAF had only 21 B-2 Spirit units. Because of that finite number, though, the costs ballooned to $2 billion per B-2 Spirit.
The Air Force desperately wants to avoid this fate.
A B-21 Raider test aircraft lands at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., during ongoing developmental flight testing, Sept. 11, 2025. The B-21 will be the backbone of the bomber fleet; it will incrementally replace the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit bombers. (U.S Air Force photo by Todd Schannuth)
A second B-21 Raider, the world’s sixth-generation stealth bomber, test aircraft arrives at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Sept. 11, 2025. The addition of the second test aircraft expands mission systems and weapons integration testing, advancing the program toward operational readiness. (Courtesy photo)
A B-21 Raider is unveiled at Northrop Grumman’s manufacturing facility on Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, Dec. 2, 2022. The B-21 will be a long-range, highly survivable, penetrating strike stealth bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joshua M. Carroll)
The Original Plans
The Raider’s original target price is one-third of the B-2 program’s per-unit cost.
The Air Force maintains it will acquire at least 100 B-21s. That figure very much remains in doubt, of course, given the ongoing (and increasing) budgetary limitations of the US government.
According to some projections, the 2031 totals for research, development, and procurement of the B-21 Raider put the program at around $86 billion for taxpayers.
The FY2026 budget ask was around $10 billion for the B-21 — and that’s with the Pentagon accelerating the development of this priority program.
In fact, in 2024, the Biden administration’s Air Force Secretary, Frank Kendal, testified before Congress that Northrop Grumman had reduced the B-21’s unit cost.
A year later, the Pentagon reduced B-21 procurement to about $5.3 billion, saving taxpayers $1 billion.
Other assessments indicate that over five years, the program can save taxpayers another 28 percent of the original projected costs.
Yes, Northrop likely took a huge financial hit.
Considering the defense contractors are not your typical business — they are part of the interlocking iron bureaucracies of the “military-industrial complex” — these firms can take that financial hit much better than a truly private enterprise could.
What’s more, the Air Force has expedited the testing of the B-21 Raider. On November 10, 2023, the prototype made its first flight at Palmdale (it’s designed at the Air Force’s legendary Plant 42).
It flew for 90 minutes before landing at the nearby Edwards Air Force Base.
Another confirmed flight from Edwards occurred on January 17, 2024. By September of that year, the B-21 was operating at two sorties per week.
The B-21 Takes Wing
On September 11, 2025, a second B-21 Raider made its initial flight from Plant 42. It then spent hours conducting airborne flight testing before returning home to Edwards.
By having two prototypes testing at once, the Air Force is cutting down on the development–and likely the long-term costs associated with the development phase of the program.
At the same time, and this is a question to be answered by another essay at another time, the bigger question few dare to ask in the Pentagon is whether the B-21 Raider is even the next necessary step for American airpower.
B-2 Spirit. 19FortyFive.com image take at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in July, 2025.
As cheap drones and longer-range missiles (and hypersonic weapons) come to the forefront, platforms like the B-21 Raider, no matter how advanced they may be for their class, might be less useful (and therefore not worth the expense) going forward.
Still, the Air Force deserves credit for finally keeping costs low on a major program. If only they’d been doing this since the 1990s.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is the Senior National Security Editor at 19FortyFive.com. He also manages The Weichert Brief on Substack. Weichert also hosts “National Security Talk” on Rumble. He is the author of four bestselling national security books, the most recent of which is A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine (Encounter Books). Follow him via Twitter/X @WeTheBrandon.
