2024 Air, Space & Cyber: B-21 Update

The “B-21 Update” panel at AFA’s 2024 Air, Space & Cyber Conference featured Gen. Thomas Bussiere, Air Force Global Strike Command; Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, Eighth Air Force and Joint-Global Strike Operations Center; William “Elvis” Bailey, Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office; and Thomas Jones, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems. The session, held on September 18, was moderated by Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.), Executive Vice President of AFA. Watch the video below:

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg, USAF (Ret.), Executive Vice President, AFA:

Let’s go ahead and begin with, first of all, your views, specifically of the current status of the B-21 program. So simply asked, how is everything really going? General Bussiere?

Gen. Thomas Bussiere, Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command:

Thanks, General Raaberg, and if you’ll allow me, I’d like to start off, again, saying thank you.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Thank you, sir.

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

To AFA. Thank you to the folks on the panel here that I’ll talk about here in a second, and thank you to our airmen who are right now moving around the globe with the free world’s only bomber force. Okay? The free world’s only bomber force. And I don’t know if you noticed when that video, there was a little tear running down my cheek. And I’m not prone for tears, but if that doesn’t fire you up, you may not be awake right now.

So the success of the B-21 Raider program is a byproduct of who’s on the stage right now at offer to you. It’s a byproduct of the relationships and integration, both physically and functionally, of the experts, operations and maintenance experts of the mighty Eighth Air Force that are physically and functionally integrated with the acquisition professionals of the RCO and the industry professionals of Northrop Grumman. That is the secret sauce of this weapon system. That is why it’s going so well, and I’d offer to you one thing before I hand off the mic to General Armagost, nobody on the planet can do what we’re doing right now. Nobody on the planet can build an exquisite, technologically advanced platform like the B-21, and quite frankly, nobody on the planet can hold at risk what we can hold at risk at a time and place of our choosing.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

General Armagost.

Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, Commander, Eighth Air Force; Commander Joint Global Strike Operations Center:

All right. I will offer my thanks as well. This is a fantastic forum. I think this is my fourth year in a row with a couple of these guys for sure, but I want to talk a little bit about the history of where we are to understand where we’re going as well. So when I became a Wing Commander in 2014, continuous bomber presence was underway. B-1s were in absent continuously as well. And in the course of that time, what we ended up doing was bringing B-52s into the mix in CENTCOM, and then also transitioning through bomber assurance and deterrence, bomber task force. And now we’ve arrived as well at a force generation model that, to General Bussiere’s point, has us constantly present around the globe. In the last year, for FY ’24 alone, we’ve touched seven combatant commands, to include 25 deployments and one Global Strike mission from the B-1s in February to Syria in response to the lives lost at Tower 22.

So the ACE model that the Air Force is working its way into doing, I would offer that the free world’s bomber force has been conducting that for 10 years and we have learned many good lessons in that activity. So to understand that past of how we have used our asymmetric power, the West’s only long range bomber force, how would we implement the lessons we’ve learned or gather the lessons we’ve learned and take it forward? And I would offer the Doolittle Raiders as an example. From December 7th until the Doolittle Raiders strike, it was 132 days. They gathered teams from around Eighth Air Force and brought them together under Lieutenant Colonel Doolittle’s leadership at the time, and subsequently did what I would offer as the first version of that penetrating force, that long range attack that was strategic surprise.

And so what we have done is modeled what we were calling the farm team as led through the mighty Eighth Air Force, but also directly led through the 31st test and evaluation squadron at Edwards. And we are gathering from around the Air Force instructors who are experts in their systems and we’re bringing them together, along the model of operators with industry and acquirers to develop TTPs to understand differently how we are going to use this penetrating system, this sixth generation penetrating system in a way that we have to work our way through so that when we have it on the ramp at Ellsworth Air Force Base, we’re ready to do that.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Mr. Bailey.

William “Elvis” Bailey, Director, Department of the Air Force, Rapid Capabilities Office:

Thank you. I’d like to thank AFA again for this forum as well to get a chance to talk about our program. And I’ll pull on that same thread that I think General Bussiere was getting because after his comments, after Arma’s comments, if you’re not fired up, you may not be asleep. Let’s check for a pulse. You may be dead. But in terms of the program today, we are in flight test. You guys got a chance to see a little bit of the footage there. We’re going through and expanding that operating envelope for the aircraft, leading our way into follow-on system testing for sure, learning as we go there. But in addition to that, we’re also in ground test and we’ve completed structures testing for our first ground test vehicle now. And what really we were doing there was proving out the structure of the platform, and also at the same time too, validating that digital model that we’ve been working on throughout. Hey, trying to understand analytically how the aircraft’s going to perform, then testing it physically, then going back to that model.

Lastly after that is we’re doing fatigue testing on another ground model as well, and we’ll be getting into how does the aircraft age over time? It’s just not as flashy as the flight test crowd is. However, if you intend to build a lot of these and operate them for a long time, this is very important work. It’s a testament to the team that does not take its eye off the ball, which isn’t running after just the flashy thing, but all components that have to advance if you’re going to be successful.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Mr. Jones.

Thomas Jones, President, Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems:

Okay, thank you, Doug. In preparing for this session, I was thinking back to the panel that we were on last year. You and I were sitting up here talking about what we definitely expect to have first flight this year and just thinking about everything that has occurred in the year since we were last up here. We’ve had first flight. Not only have we had that first flight, but we are routinely generating test flights with our test aircraft. As you heard, we have three aircraft in various configurations of test right now and we’re in production.

Now, if you are around acquisitions a lot and you heard someone say, “We’re in tests and we’re also in production,” a lot of people would start worrying. That’s something we call concurrency, right? And that’s something that traditionally there’s been a lot of risk in, but I believe the digital engineering environment that we’ve been speaking about and we’ll speak about later in the presentation and the active contract management allocation of risk mitigation actions we’ve done in concert with the RCO has really been able to manage that risk to a point where Doug, exactly to your opening point, in our contract, we’re given a threshold and an objective date to have that first flight.

And we were almost dead center, I think right between those two, and we did that while hitting the affordability costs. And we did that just to complicate things as if building the world’s first six gen bomber wasn’t enough, worst pandemic in a century, worst hyperinflation in 40 years, right? And we’re still hitting affordability targets and on schedule, which I think is a testament to the program management philosophy and principles that we’ve developed in concert with the Air Force on this program, and hopefully will benefit many, many other programs going forward because the need to get capability into the fleet is just going to drive more built-in concurrency in the future programs. That’s what we’re going to have to do and we’re going to have to figure out a way to manage it and not respond to it. So really excited be on the panel.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Thank you, gentlemen. Okay, I’m going to open it up to more of the strategic level. So for you, General Bussiere, in the current global environment, how does Air Force Global Strike Command’s bomber fleet contribute to the joint forces requirement relate to sustain that combat power of today and tomorrow?

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

So not unlike our previous panel on the strategic deterrence imperative and the nuclear imperative that as we recapitalize, that same kind of mentality applies to the bomber fleet. I would offer that it is probably the most demanded platform and weapon system across the fabric of all our geographic combatant commands that we have with relatively small numbers and fairly aged weapon systems today. So as we transition from the B-1 and the B-2 to the B-21 and we transition from the B-52H to the B-52J model, there’s a realization that we’re probably not going to see a decreased demand signal from our regional combatant commands on bomber task forces. General Armagost mentioned last year the number of deployments and as we engaged and interacted and integrated with those seven various combatant commands, we also integrated with over 42 nations that are associated with their geographic responsibilities of those combatant commands.

The ability to project the US flag via the bomber task force, the ability to assure our allies that we’re there with them in the theater, and we show our weapon systems, both bombers, airmen and ops and maintenance integrated with their country’s services, it provides great presence and great comfort to them that we are there with them as they try to deter nefarious actors in their regions. That demand signal, in my opinion’s only going to go up in the years ahead. And as we transition from the legacy to new, the B-21 fleet will provide great comfort to our allies and should provide great pause to any potential adversary.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

I’m going to bring it a little bit closer to home now for General Armagost. With the announcement of Ellsworth Air Force Base as the first B-21 base, what is the Eighth Air Force doing to prepare for operational employment from its home base, or perhaps from four locations? Let me throw a little more tidbit to that because I think this is important. How is initial cadre of crews, the maintenance and the support personnel preparing for future ops? Because I can only imagine there might be a little bit of high-fidelity training involved, ops analysis and so forth. So General?

Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost:

Yeah, I would offer, it’s exactly what General Bussiere just said about the integration of operations, acquisition and industry together. Those happen at all those levels, and I would say that to reference back to your previous panel as well, this enterprise, long-range strike bombers and missiles actually, and our national level command and control do not get the luxury of being able to stand down a system to stand up a system. They have to simultaneously conduct both of those.

And so in the sense of operating now, we are I think doing a much better job as we grow through all those various forms of force generation, force presentation, deployment, all of that, to capture the lessons as we go. I’ve been very impressed actually, with how good our bomber crews have gotten at going to Australia or Sweden or Romania very quickly and very efficiently, which is not to say that it is easy, which is also not to say that there’s a heavy maintenance burden, sustainment burden, air mobility burden that also falls on those activities. So we have to understand the totality of the opportunity cost in doing those things. And so that’s where we’re really refining how it is we’re approaching the B-21 onboarding and the operational acceptance and fielding of the B-21.

If you get a chance and you’re going through to see Mount Rushmore in the summer next summer and you have a CAC card and you can get on Ellsworth Air Force Base, just drive around and look. It is a substantial lift is what is happening there. It’s impressive and it is similar to the aircraft itself. It’s falling on that wing. It is falling on the airmen, it is falling on the contractors who join with us and partner with us to really make that happen and it’s quite impressive.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Thank you. Mr. Bailey, when I look at all four of you, you represent a greater enterprise. I think of Air Force Material Command and all those involved at the enterprise level, but similar to General Marmoset’s perspective, how is the B-21 program now preparing for the standup of Ellsworth Air Force Base and really, the delivery of the aircraft to Air Force Global Strike Command?

William “Elvis” Bailey:

It’s a great question because at times you might think that this is somehow not part of the site picture. So Tom and I will spend a lot of time talking about a production line. We will talk a lot about progress through the flight test program, but that is not the goal here. That is not the objective. It is part of it certainly, but it is in what Arma’s already talked about with regards to that partnership where we are getting together with the pilots, the maintainers, all of Global Strike, which they make themselves available to us. They participate in these activities so that we are looking at everything that they’re going to need on day one to be able to operate, maintain that jet.

It covers aircraft certainly, but it’s support equipment, facilities, networks, TOs, and to have them in that conversation. So we’re very clear as a team what the priorities are and what those priorities are day after day after day. So we have the right things in the place at the right time, but that collaboration between operators and acquirers has been, again, a key component of this success that I think as we take a look at differentiators in great power competition, this has got to be a consideration as we look at that problem set, and again, what I would consider to be a key to success.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Yeah. Mr. Jones, you and I have talked about this quite a bit in the past, but Northrop Grumman’s brought an incredible technology. You got an incredible talent base and program management to the B-1 design and development process. However, it seems the lines are now beginning to blur between a test article and a combat ready aircraft. How did the results you’re seeing in test actually align with Northrop Grumman’s expectations as you work to deliver a fully mission capable jet to your customer at Ellsworth Air Force base on day one?

Thomas Jones:

Yeah. So we’ll talk a little bit later in the panel here about our philosophy, which is T-1 like P-1, but basically, the intent was for us to flight test a production representative vehicle. So your observation about blurring the line between a test article and a production asset is not far from the truth.

In terms of how the testing is going, I’m very pleased with how that’s going. As I mentioned in my opening comments, we’re really starting to strike up quite a cadence. We’re actually able to generate two test flights sometimes in a given week, which if you think about how far in we are, that’s great. Not only that. When we started this journey way back at contract award, we made a vow that we were going to design this system to be a daily flyer for you, General Armagost. And if you can think about aircraft that’s in the very front end of flight test, being able to generate two sorties a week, clearly, I think we’re well on our way to delivering a kind of asset that can be that daily flyer for you and the rest of the war fighters out there.

The aircraft, everything we’ve heard is it flies very much like the model. And in fact, a funny story I like to tell about the first flight. We’re all very excited to hear from the test pilots how it handled when it came down. And they said, “It’s almost exactly like the model, but we noticed on takeoff, it rotated slightly differently.” So engineers being engineers, they didn’t want their model to be wrong. So they pulled off all the recorded data and looked at it and went back to the test pilots next day and say, Actually, you double-pumped the stick. And when we put that into the simulation, it performed exactly the way the simulation said it would.” So the model itself is very good. We’ve been able to make significant expansions of the flight envelope to date, and we’re finding the model to be accurate enough that we’re actually using the model itself to inform our test points and our test planning, which I think is a very good place to be.

As Elvis mentioned, we have three aircraft in test. We’ve got the one in flight test, and we’ve got two in structural tests. And yes, flight test is pretty snazzy but if you saw our test rig taking a B-2 and bending it and all the hydraulic… If you like, big hydraulic machinery, that test fixture is pretty impressive in itself. So all in all, I’d say I think the program is progressing very well. And frankly, to date, and I don’t want to jinx myself, but we’ve had more issues with test fixtures and training of our test personnel than we actually have of the test article itself, which again, is a pretty good place to be at this point.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

So if anybody has any questions about what a double pump on takeoff looks like, just go to the test engineer, Mr. Bailey. He’ll describe it for the audience anytime.

William “Elvis” Bailey:

I was just wondering-

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

I had to laugh.

William “Elvis” Bailey:

If Tom got a chance to learn how much test pilots like to be corrected by test engineers.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Thank you. General Bussiere-

Thomas Jones:

I only heard this story. I didn’t deliver the data. I’m not that crazy.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

General Bussiere, this morning we talked about the strategic imperative that you allude to, especially about modernizing the nuclear enterprise. Okay, you were blunt with one answer this morning, so I’m pretty sure you’re going to give me a blunt answer now. What are the current strategic threats facing the B-21? I would say none if it’s that good, but in reality, there’s adaptable threats out there and they’re pacing threats and they pose a lot from our adversaries against the B-20 of today and tomorrow. Your thoughts?

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

So I wouldn’t offer that we would ever no respect any threat, right? So we always honor the threat, but one of the unique aspects of this platform that is a byproduct of 30-plus years with the B-2 operation, operations, maintenance manufacturing techniques, what we’ve learned from that weapon system into today’s weapon system has provided a few things. So if you want a bumper sticker of innovation, I’d offer to you the B-21 program is the bumper sticker of agile responsive intellect of airmen, acquirers, engineers and acquisition professionals, that took what we’ve learned in the past and we’ve applied it to the B-21 program. And I think some of the successes we’re seeing now is a byproduct of that pathway.

One of the unique aspects, not just having six generation, low observable characteristics, but an open mission architecture allows our operators, our maintainers, our engineers, to look forward into the threats and that adjust the weapon systems’ capabilities and capacity as we flow along, and that it’s much more agile to be able to meet and present against the threats that we’re seeing both today and in the future. So it’s a different paradigm.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Right.

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

How we build, how we upgrade, how we modernize, and how we mission plan for the threats in the future. I would offer you as revolutionary in this platform versus previous platforms.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Good point. So General Armagost, let me run that line exactly. So similarly, a lot of people don’t realize that you’re also the Commander of the Joint Global Strike Operations Center itself. So how’s the integration of the B-21 a six generation equivalent platform going and progressing into the existing bomber fleet? And specifically, are the program milestones for B-21 delivery to Global Strike meeting your preparation milestones for that integration?

Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost:

Absolutely. I would add to General Bussiere’s comments. The innovation side of this has us thinking differently about how we approach it when it comes to everyone in the room having the opportunity to see what can happen when you have senior instructors from multiple platforms breaking down TTPs, then you have models that are flexible enough to be able to alter the environment in response to the TTP development or tactics, techniques and procedures. And so in many ways, as the customer, I am not that worried about milestones. I’m not trying to match my milestones with the milestones of production.

We are trying to be very ahead of how we might actually employ this airplane, and I would say that’s what’s different about the B-21 from the B-2. I think we learned some lessons early on in the B-2 program that maybe we could have done it slightly differently along these lines. But now with technology and the integration of operations, acquirers and industry, more is available to us because of that, and the response then becomes self-fulfilling.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

So from RCO and rapid capability, and again at the enterprise, Mr. Bailey, how do you manage fielding a new system? But at the same time you’re trying to plan for a constantly evolving threat landscape out there?

William “Elvis” Bailey:

No, it’s a worthy pursuit. Hopefully people are tracking the fact that the threat environment is very complex and it’s very dynamic. Our adversaries have been watching us for 30 years as well, and they are not stupid and they are not static, and they are demonstrating that they can develop and field things that complicate our plans. And that’s why this pursuit of an open design is so important. You need to plan for this, you need to anticipate this because we’re not stupid or static either. We watch them as well.

And really, at that point, it allows us to not only take into account an environment where there’s going to be new threats, but it also enables the opportunities for new technologies, for new companies that did not exist when we first pursued these things. How do we acknowledge the environment going forward and incorporate that in our strategy? And again, this is an area where we talked a little bit about agility and flexibility. They can’t be just buzzwords. These are the kinds of things that you need to be able to demonstrate inside your pursuit frequently. This needs to be muscles that you develop over time. Why? Because again, it’s going to be changing on you. And we’ve had the benefit of employing a lot of those strategies on this program and again, demonstrating success today.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

So Mr. Jones, when the B-21 entered production last fall, you were talking back then about advanced manufacturing. And what’s been Northrop Grumman’s experience with designing and now building a digital weapons system? Has it been complimentary through the design and development process? And has the digital actually informed the developmental?

Thomas Jones:

Yeah, in short, yes, but I think to start off with, there’s a lot of discussion in our industry right now about production and the need to be able to scale production, but not a lot of talk about a lot of the foundational things that make up being able to go into production. Apart from parts, you need people, you need tooling, you need processes, you need instructions to do the processes, you need training, and you have to have all those things working smoothly along with getting your parts and having a good design if you want to produce your aircraft.

The philosophy we had of making T-1 like P-1, which is basically making our first test jet production representative, was meant to try and burn down that risk upfront. A lot of times first and sometimes even second aircraft are very bespoke. They’re built by the top-rated, most experienced technicians, sometimes even engineers out on the floor. Our intent was to go get the people who are going to make this aircraft and they’re good, smart people. They come from non-technical backgrounds, people that made T-1 and the other two test aircraft came from jobs at baristas, babysitters, bartenders, things like that.

And we brought them in and trained them how to make the most advanced stealth aircraft in the world. And it was by from the very outset, making the dedication. And we did this in conjunction with RCO. We could have cut corners and we could have got to first flight sooner, but we felt we were going to burn down more risk if we had technicians, found the parts of the bill that were giving them trouble, made sure we had training around that or improved the process. And as a result of that, I think as we’re now in official production, we’re in a far better place than we would’ve been had we not adopted that philosophy.

In terms of advanced manufacturing, there’s a lot of different techniques we’re using. We’re using robotics in a number of different places from automated fiber layup in some cases to automated robotic non-destructive inspection. So we’re finding ways to build efficiency in there. One of the areas that has produced some of the most gains is augmented reality. We started out basically just wanting to use augmented reality to get the shop floor instructions where basically the technicians could see them as they’re doing the operation and they did not have to run back and forth to a desk to consult drawings. It started out that way. And then we realized, “Hey, we can superimpose subsystems and wiring and hydraulic tubing on there and speed up sub-assemblies. And now we’re even seeing how that can expedite the rate at which we do NDI, which is very important on mostly composite aircraft.

So injecting this technology and things like augmented reality has to have that digital model in order to be able to function. So we’re bringing it in. And as anything, once you get in the hands of the operators, they find new innovative ways that they can become even more efficient in what they do. So this is very much a part of who we are as a company now. This is the way we’re going to build things. We’re retroactively putting it into other systems that we build, and I can’t imagine going forward in any future designs or builds not adopting this type of digital T-1 like P-1 highly integrated digital model, the shop floor methodology.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

I don’t know if any of the other panelists would like to amplify, but I imagine from the manufacturing level, like the B-2 world, there was a lot of feed forward that translates to the operational level, but also for the developmental. It’s almost a given that you’re talking to each other daily at the enterprise level and feeding forward. Anything else to add to the B-21’s advantage in that arena and what we learned from the past?

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

Well, I think Tom highlighted the fact that the B-2 was more of a unique hand-carved wooden shoe. Each one was very unique in and of itself. A lot of lessons learned on how we build it, how we maintain it, how we sustain it, how we operate it, how we integrate it with other systems in the department, and all of those lessons. We are a byproduct of what industry has learned on automation and how you normalize that process. It’s not lost on me that T-1 is represented to P-1 is representative P-1 will save a lot of operational risk down the road. It will save a lot of risk on the maintenance. It’ll save a lot of risk on the sustainment. How we integrate that into the daily ops is General Armagost’s job, but we are the benefactors of your progress in those industrial techniques, and we will be the benefactors of the acquisition models that we’re using to field this weapon system.

William “Elvis” Bailey:

I’d like to jump in, I guess on that one as well, which is, you’re right. Well, actually, you have a weapon system, bad on me, but that represents generations of experience being brought to bear on a problem set, fielding an aircraft so advanced where perhaps the argument back for the B-2 was the technical performance of the platform. The challenge here is we are delivering something that would be on par with that, but now advance that a next generation, while we’re also managing the very important aspects of the cost of ownership, the cost of production, the ability to have it show up and be effective on day one, as a team being able to raise the overall expectation of success for us. And it covers the gamut of not just the simple production of aircraft, but they will be a high capacity force that we will pose a gigantic problem to the adversary and they will know that this is not a one-off, that they will be flying it every day, that they will be able to afford to put it out on the ramp in numbers.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Especially in stand-in, stand-off capability. Just broadly, and General Bussiere, I’d like to start with how would you envision Allied partners of the future? We’ve seen, for example, like the F-35 program and others, but just as a baseline, how would you envision if possible partners downrange?

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

So I think the future is going to hold similar aspects of how we’ve integrated our partner nations into the B-2 program. So we have exchange aviators from the UK and the B-Two program. We have exchange officers in different facets of the Nuke enterprise. And I think that’s an important first step. In the future, I think if there’s a future where we have more integration, whether our allies and partners in this platform, potential consideration for forward-facing either temporary or permanent of this weapon system to be able to deter nefarious actors around the globe, I think might be of interest to the senior policymakers.

But I would imagine that once this weapon system gets operational, that the demand signal for B-21 bomber task forces are going to go dramatically up as we see the capability and capacity for that platform coupled with our airmen to deter nefarious activity.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

It’ll be welcomed in the co-COMs. Yes, good point. Well, believe it or not, we’re less than three minutes away from ending this. So I really like to get some closing thoughts and starting with you, Mr. Jones, something that we can take away, please.

Thomas Jones:

It’s been a phenomenal year of progress and we hope to continue that through the next year and have even more good things to tell you when we’re up here this time next year. This program has been successful. General Bussiere nailed it. It’s the team, it’s the partnership, it’s the trust and the transparency that we have. And that environment has enabled us working with our partners, the RCO and the Warfighting Command, to put a risk management program in place that has taken what many would’ve looked at and said, “That looks pretty tough,” and execute it very well despite a lot of external challenges. So great to be part of the team, guys.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Mr. Bailey.

William “Elvis” Bailey:

Well, we talked a little bit about the team and to understand that that integrated cross-functional team between industry and ourselves and the warfighter. Certainly, what I love is the experience level, the wisdom on that team to deal with the alligators of flight test in the boat and production. But they’re also looking for the alligators that are eyeballing climate in the boat. Like, “Hey, we got to be paying attention to that first operating base. Hey, we got to be paying attention to certifications across the board.” So the team is doing a great job of dealing with not only the pressing issue, but getting us in a great position for those next big steps.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

Down to a minute. General Armagost.

Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost:

So I’ve had the good fortune, I guess, of being the Eighth Air Force Commander when Masters of the Air came out last spring. And one of the conclusions I made from that was, I don’t ever want to ask any of you to do what they had to do. And if you remember from the video at the beginning, two of those aircraft, the B-17 and the B-24 were fielded before World War II. And so instead of asking you to ask to give so much like they did, I think we have to ask much of ourselves right now in fielding the B-21. So that that becomes less of a likelihood.

Maj. Gen. Doug Raaberg:

General Bussiere, close us out, please.

Gen. Thomas Bussiere:

So again, thank you to AFA for allowing us to have this conversation. Thank you to our industry partners who are so helpful in making us successful in fielding a new capability. Thank you to our Air Force Material Command professionals, both under Duke Richardson, as well as with the RCO under Elvis, for everything you do to make us part of the solution going forward. I think it makes a difference. And then I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank our Airmen of the Bomber command. You are carrying a heavy load right now as you move bombers around the planet with bomber task forces. I have never seen the amount of activity that we’ve witnessed in the last 12 months in 8th Air Force. You’re impressive, and thank you.

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This transcript was auto-generated, and may not be 100 percent accurate. The source audio and video can be accessed above.