We had a chance to experience the first time when the 6th generation military aircraft was presented to the public on December 2nd. The moment when Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider was unveiled at the company’s factory in Palmdale made many US foes hold their breath for a while. Besides an outstanding design and obvious aerodynamic characteristics, the aircraft has some hidden “gems” that Northrop Gruman shared in their report. This article will guide you through some exciting solutions that were implemented in the masterpiece called Northrop Grumman’s B-21 Raider.
Cloud technology. Believe it or not, this is by far the first military project that managed to transfer all data to the shared cloud for common use by the US Air Force and Northrop Grumman. The details on what exact data is shared were decided to remain classified. However, having the fact that ‘This demonstration included the development, deployment and test of B-21 data, including the B-21 digital twin, that will support B-21 operations and sustainment.’ we can assume that a cloud-based solution was utilized for the development process and better data flow between the military supplier (Northrop Gruman) and client ( the US Air Force). The influence of cloud technologies may be observed after comparing the duration of development of various US military air vessels. It took 11 years to develop the D-21 Raider from scratch. While the development of the B-2 bomber (previous version) lasted for about 3 decades. This is quite a dramatic difference taking into consideration that B-21 is way more advanced than its “younger brother” B-2 which is rather to be called a grandfather.
Open Architecture. B-21 Raider has updatable software which allows it to be flexible and agile when it comes to meeting the evolving threats of war or the rapid military development of the US enemies. This sounds crazy, but this bomber is able to update as your Tesla does. Engineers developed software that works as an operations system. Avionics, system controls, weapon controls, alarm systems, engines, and hydraulics are super fragile parts of every plane. It is known that the malfunction of one can lead to its further substitution and inability to fly. This issue was solved by Northrop Grumman engineers since software flexibility also means hardware flexibility. In case any problem is detected and the hydraulic system, for example, performs poorly on high attitudes, it may be solved even during a flight by changing the way pressure is applied to it.
Hopefully, we could utilize such technology in the civil airline industry. Upgradability is a must nowadays. I truly believe we will be able to see such a message from our local airlines: “The flight to Dubai was cancelled since our Boeing 777 is undergoing a yearly upgrade”.