B-21 Stealth Bomber: Balancing Transparency and Secrecy

By Deborah Lee James

Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James has over 30 years of senior level homeland and national security experience in the federal government and private sector. She is also the author of Aim High: Chart Your Course and Find SuccessDuring her time as Secretary, her responsibilities included organizing, training, equipping and providing for the welfare of The Department of the Air Force and its nearly 660,000 active-duty, Guard, Reserve, and civilian Airmen and their families. Secretary James also oversaw the Air Force’s annual budget of more than $139 billion. Today, James serves on boards of directors and advisory boards of companies and not-for-profits focused on security, including Textron, Unisys, and Noblis.

America’s next stealth bomber, known as the B-21 Raider, will become the Air Force’s primary aircraft in the strategic bomber leg of the nuclear triad. Slated for delivery in 2025, it will employ cutting edge stealth and electronic warfare technologies while also incorporating a flexible architecture to allow for future technological advances. This will allow the B-21 to serve well into the 21st century as it replaces the Air Force’s ageing fleet of B-52s, B-1s, and eventually the B-2s. However, this high-tech option comes at a high cost. Each B-21 is expected to cost $550 million, though the total program cost remains a secret for national security reasons.

The Cipher Brief’s Will Edwards spoke to former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James to learn more about the B-21’s mission in nuclear deterrence and advanced capabilities as well as the balance between transparency and security in the oversight of a top-secret program such as the B-21.

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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