THE BIG REVEAL: B-21 Raider a Pathfinder for Digital Engineering Revolution.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

PALMDALE, California--Just after dusk on Dec. 2 -- to the sound of swelling music and applause from thousands of workers and dignitaries --Northrop Grumman employees removed a white shroud from the B-21 Raider and tugged it out of its hangar for the whole world to see. Most of the aircraft anyway.

About one-fourth of the bomber--the tail-end specifically--was kept inside Air Force Hangar 42 to prevent overhead intelligence from seeing the aft section, a crucial part of the overall system that gives the aircraft its stealth capabilities. However, it was overcast, so prying spy satellites couldn't have seen much anyway.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III in a speech after the unveiling said the B-21 "is a testament to America's enduring advantages in ingenuity and innovation. And it's proof of the department's long-term commitment to building advanced capabilities that will fortify America's ability to deter aggression today and into the future."

The B-21 Raider is being called a "sixth-generation aircraft" and is designed as a low-observable, or stealthy, strategic bomber that can penetrate air defenses and deliver nuclear or conventional weapons deep in enemy territory and return undetected to a base in the United States.

Despite revealing the nation's newest long-range strategic bomber to the public for the first time, this is still a top-secret program, as Northrop Grumman executives and Air Force personnel reminded reporters in a series of briefings throughout the day.

What is the wingspan? They couldn't say. What is the aircraft's range? Can't tell you. How much do you think each aircraft will cost taxpayers? That's classified.

Yet the company and government representatives did have a good news story to tell: namely, how industry and the Air Force went from signing a contract in 2015 to having six proto-types in various stages of production in a little more than seven years.

Test flights are expected to begin sometime in 2023--meaning the program could go from concept to flight in eight years.

Northrop Grumman is aiming to deliver the first Raiders to the Air Force by the middle of the 2020s. The first squadron will be located at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

"We are taking technology from the future and bringing it to the here and now," Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman president and CEO, said in a press briefing prior to the aircraft's debut. "It's not just about what the technology advancement of the aircraft means, but...