There Bombs B-21 Raider was first seen refueling in mid-air behind a KC-135R tanker aircraft during ongoing U.S. Air Force testing.
According to the portal The War Zone became the activity of Ian Recchio photographed, the operator of the Instagram profile Look Under Rocks. The images shared by Ian also show an aircraft resembling a business jet flying under the two machines.
Among other things, the photos provide a good size comparison between the B-21 and the KC-135Ras previously published images had significant distortions.
As speculated by TWZ, the B-21 have a span of about 45 meters, taking into account that it is wider than that KC-135Rwhose span is 39 meters. However, it is smaller than that B-2whose span is 52 meters.
It is worth noting that the B-21 Raider may have been refueled by air tankers before, but this was the first time such a test activity had been caught on camera.
In any case, the pictures show that the Raider continues to make progress, and aerial refueling will further increase its operational time during extended testing – a critical factor for its planned use in long-range missions.
Photo: Instagram @lookunderocks. This content was created using AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
