Discussions continue about opening a second production line for the B-21, the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) head said on Tuesday at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) strategic forces panel.
Former STRATCOM commander Gen. Anthony Cotton has said the service needs around 145 Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bombers–at least 45 more than now planned.
“There’s ongoing work within the Joint Force to determine what that end point might be, and there are, of course, investments that have been made to increase the production rate and potentially to open a second production line–that decision has yet to be made,” Adm. Rich Correll said. Correll was responding to a question from Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who said “”we’re hearing now that maybe 150 B-21 bombers is the target area” by the Defense Department, and whether “we’re building the infrastructure to support that.”
The B-21 is designed to have the dual capability of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons, which the National Nuclear Security Administration is responsible for producing and maintaining. As of October 2024, the 2025 Stockpile Stewardship Management Plan said that the B61-12 life extension program, which completed its last production unit in December 2024, is continuing to certify the B-21 to carry the gravity bomb.
“Clearly, the B-21 represents a really significant capability from a conventional and a nuclear perspective for the Joint Force–a sixth generation stealth capability with stand-in or stand-off precision strike and the ability to maneuver within a contested electromagnetic spectrum so what it [the B-21] enables for the Joint Force goes beyond the strike capability associated with it,” Correll testified.
Fiscal 2026 reconciliation included $4.5 billion for the B-21, and Northrop Grumman said last month that it and the Air Force have agreed to increase the bomber’s production rate, as the first B-21 prepares to field at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., next year.
Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily first published a version of this story.