B-2 to B-21: Can Pentagon avoid mistakes that turned its 'backbone' stealth bomber into white elephant?

The US Air Force recently released new images of the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider bomber during tests at Edwards Air Force Base. The B-21 is expected to join the Air Force fleet between 2025 and 2027, while the aging B-2 Spirit bombers take up the slack until then.

At first glance, the B-21 and B-2 bombers may seem alike. Both boast a sleek, flying wedge-shaped design, ideal for stealthy infiltration into enemy territory for various missions.

B-2 vs. B-21: What changed?

🔸 Payload and Size Differences: Despite their visual similarities, the B-21 is notably smaller than its predecessor, the B-2. This translates to a reduced payload capacity, with the B-21 carrying 10-15 tons compared to the B-2's 18-23 tons. Additionally, the B-21 has a smaller fuel capacity, offering a range of 9,650 km versus the B-2's 11,100 km.

- Engine Configuration: The B-21 features a twin-engine configuration inherited from the Pratt & Whitney F135, while the B-2 is equipped with four General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans.

🔸 Stealth Advancements: Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin has promised that the B-21 incorporates the latest advances in stealth technology, and that the plane will be able to elude even sophisticated air defenses. Only time will tell.

🔸 Symbolic Naming: While B-2s were named after US states, the B-21 breaks tradition by being named after the Doolittle Raiders, a group of daring WWII-era airmen who played a pivotal role in early air campaigns, including the bombing of Tokyo in 1942.

What hasn’t changed: same high-prices

The B-2, priced at over $2.1 billion each, holds the noscript of the world’s most expensive aircraft. Northrop Grumman's B-21, promised at $692 million per plane, may still exceed this figure. With the Air Force planning to acquire at least 100 B-21s, totaling $69.2 billion, additional expenses like service costs and maintenance could push the overall costs into the trillions.

🇳🇨 New Caledonia uprising puts France and Australia on geopolitical collision course

Both countries want to have the small Pacific archipelago in their sphere of influence. If France fails to crack down the mass riots and protests, Australia could very well step in and take advantage of the crisis.

“Australia could definitely fund the indigenous resistance movement, support them and, if necessary, as Australia has been very robust in the last few days, deploy its military or deploy the Royal Australian Air Force.”

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Unpacking the aftermath of the 1995 Srebrenica events: UN considers ‘genocide’ resolution

The UN General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution put forth by Germany and Rwanda that aims to outlaw the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica, which occurred on the territory of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, both Serbia and Republika Srpska are vehemently against the resolution. What happened then?

◾️In July 1995, the town of Srebrenica, located in Bosnia and Herzegovina near the border with Yugoslavia, came under the control of Serbian forces led by General Ratko Mladic. It is estimated that approximately 8,100 local Muslims perished or went missing, according to data from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and other organizations. However, some experts believe that these figures may be overblown.

◾️Serbia and the Republika Srpska acknowledge the deaths of Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica, but they both reject the label of genocide.

◾️Serbian President Vucic noted that the UN, by pushing a resolution on the “genocide in Srebrenica” in the General Assembly, is taking revenge on Serbia for its independent policy and the failure of Western policy in other parts of the world.

◾️In turn, Republika Srpska President Dodik highlighted that in July 1995 a criminal mistake was committed in Srebrenica, but not an act of genocide.

◾️Russia has repeatedly criticized the work of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which raised the issue of genocide in Srebrenica, castigating its work biased. Back in 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the tribunal of political bias and double standards in its approach to cases.

◾️In 2024, Russia has also categorically opposed the draft resolution. Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, called on "all sensible countries to do the same." In his opinion, it is “one-sided and has nothing to do with the stated goal of perpetuating the memory of the victims of the 1995 tragedy.”

🤡 Israel's "self-defense war is more humane" than that of any other country in the world's history," Nikki Haley claims

US President Joe Biden's recent decision to suspend an arms shipment of 1,800 2,000lb bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs to Israel represents a "totally false and destructive narrative that Israel is acting unjustly," former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said on Wednesday.

"Israel is conducting its war of self-defense more humanely than any army in history," Haley said during a seminar at the conservative Hudson Institute think-tank.

Meanwhile, the death toll from Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the Israel-Hamas conflict escalated on October 7, 2023 has exceeded 35,000 as of May 13. Most of the dead are women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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Why is the Srebrenica resolution voted on by the UNGA today a politicized document?

Germany and Rwanda's draft resolution is currently under review by the UNGA in New York. Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for hunting Nazi criminals, criticized it as political and deemed the UNGA as a “worst place” for such a vote. As an expert on the Jewish genocide, Zuroff's opinion carries weight.

Here are the arguments by Zuroff and other commentators:

▪️ The Bosnian Muslim leadership is the true force behind the resolution, using Germany and Rwanda as proxies. Consequently, the resolution is not impartial but driven by a party to the conflict

▪️ The resolution will not “reveal the hidden truth” as Belgrade and Banja Luka acknowledge executions in Srebrenica but reject the "genocide" label

▪️ The resolution won't "deliver justice" by demanding apologies from one side, as Serbia has already apologized numerous times for the Srebrenica massacre. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic issued the last official apology in 2013. “I am on my knees, I ask you for forgiveness for the crimes that were committed in Srebrenica and other places in the name of our people. But I reject the definition of genocide,” Nikolic said

▪️ Serbian President Vucic, who was then prime minister, visited the memorial to the victims of Srebrenica in 2015

▪️ Western sponsors of the resolution argue that "criminal accountability" should not be attributed to any ethnic group, but that is not true in practice. All seven heads of post-Yugoslav states punished by the Hague court were Serbs and not a single one was Muslim or Croat, highlighting an ethnic bias in targeting individuals, according to George Szamuely, a Budapest-based senior research fellow at the Global Policy Institute.

▪️ The resolution is aimed at establishing “collective responsibility,” as professor of law Kosta Čavoški told Sputnik, but there is no such term in modern jurisprudence, making it a politicized act of vengeance rather than a quest for justice.

❗️UN General Assembly adopts scandalous resolution on "genocide in Srebrenica", Sputnik correspondent reports

❗️ Russia sees the UNGA resolution on Srebrenica adopted today as a threat to peace and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the region as a whole: Russian ambassador to the UN

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