The US Air Force has flown its B-21 Raider stealth bomber with an operational test pilot and a developmental test pilot in the cockpit at the same time, a step the service said had never previously been taken so early in a major aircraft program.
Usually developmental test (DT) and operational test (OT) are conducted sequentially and separately. DT verifyies that an aircraft meets its technical specifications, OT determinines whether it is combat-effective in the hands of the warfighter.
Compressing DT and OT eliminates a gap that has historically added years to a program’s path to operational service, said the US Air Force.
The milestone was achieved by the Raider Combined Test Force (CTF) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, which combines the US Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center’s (AFOTEC) Detachment 5 and the 420th Flight Test Squadron.
“We put an operational test member in the pilot seat with an Air Force Test Pilot School graduate in the other,” said Col. Matt Guasco, AFOTEC Det. 5 commander. “In the history of modern test, we’ve never done that so early in a program.”
The sortie was enabled by the arrival of a second B-21 test aircraft at Edwards in September 2025, which allowed the CTF to move beyond initial flight performance checks into mission systems and weapons integration testing.
“Bringing operational testers onto the team at this early point in the program now means we can evaluate the bomber’s true combat utility, not just its flying characteristics,” said Lt. Col. Matthew Gray, 420th Flight Test Squadron commander and Raider CTF director.
Gen. Dale White, the Department of War’s direct reporting portfolio manager for critical major weapon systems, addressed the Raider CTF on June 8, 2026, and underscored the stakes of an accelerated test schedule. “Integrating operational and developmental test in the B-21 program exemplifies the acquisition culture we’re instilling throughout the force,” White said. “It’s a smarter and faster mindset that leverages modern production and test tools with the proper sense of urgency.”
The Northrop Grumman B-21 is a subsonic sixth-generation stealth bomber designed to replace the B-1B Lancer and supplement the B-2 Spirit, delivering both conventional and nuclear payloads. It made its public debut in December 2022 and completed its first flight on November 10, 2023, from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
The US Air Force and Northrop Grumman agreed in February 2026 on US$4.5 billion of funding to increase annual production capacity by 25%, with the first operational aircraft on track to arrive at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, in 2027.
