Air Force, Northrop Break Ground on New B-21 Final Assembly Line

The Department of the Air Force and Northrop Grumman have broken ground on a new final assembly line for the B-21 Raider stealth bomber at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

The ceremony took place on Sep 29, 2026, according to Air Force imagery released on Oct 2. The groundbreaking starts construction of more than one million square feet of new facilities that will support a 25% increase in annual B-21 production capacity.

The Air Force said the new facility represents “sustained commitment to delivering the capability on cost and schedule.” It described the step as progress toward fielding long-range strike capability “for America and its allies.”

Who was there

Officials at the site included William Bailey, performing the duties of assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics; Gen. Dale White, director of Critical Major Weapon Systems for the Department of War; and Maj. Gen. Peter Bonetti of Air Force Global Strike Command. Col. Nicholas Jordan, director of the Air Force’s B-21 system program, and Chris Adams, who leads the B-21 program at Northrop Grumman, also attended.

From agreement to concrete

The Palmdale work follows an agreement between the Air Force and Northrop Grumman to accelerate the program, announced on Feb 23, 2026. At the time, Northrop Grumman chief executive Kathy Warden said: “Northrop Grumman has invested more than $5 billion in digital engineering and manufacturing infrastructure, and we are ready to produce B-21 faster.”

The company said then that the first B-21 is due at Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, in 2027. It said the program involves more than 8,000 industry and Air Force personnel and over 400 suppliers in 40 states. Final assembly takes place in Palmdale.

A second site in Utah

Three weeks before the Palmdale groundbreaking, Northrop Grumman opened a new manufacturing facility, East Gate 3, at its Layton, Utah, campus on Sep 9, 2026. The company said the East Gate campus will cover about 845,000 square feet supporting next-generation aircraft manufacturing, with room for 1,500 employees by 2032.

Northrop Grumman said the building was completed ahead of schedule. It brings the company’s manufacturing footprint between Clearfield and Layton to more than two million square feet.

Where the program stands

The B-21 is a sixth-generation stealth bomber designed to carry conventional and nuclear weapons, with an open architecture intended to allow upgrades. A second flight-test aircraft joined testing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in September 2025. Northrop Grumman said at the time that the next phase of testing would move beyond flight performance into weapons and mission systems.

Neither the Air Force nor Northrop Grumman gave a completion date for the new Palmdale facilities or said how many aircraft a year the expanded line will produce.