Tag: Palmdale

Chase security guard helped plan a $200,000 armed heist in Palmdale, authorities say

[ad_1]

The couple arrived at the Chase Bank in Palmdale as planned. It was early February and they were there to withdraw $200,000. Nearby, a private security guard stood watch, occasionally sending text messages on her cellphone.

As the couple made their way across the parking lot that day, they were approached by two armed men, who robbed them before fleeing.

At the time, it seemed like a random act of violence with a big payout, but federal authorities say it was actually an inside job.

This week, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced that three Antelope Valley residents were charged in connection with the armed heist.

ATF officials identified the suspects as 24-year-old Tyjana Grayes of Palmdale, and Lancaster residents Jerry “Poppa” Wimbley Jr., 21, and Roman “Siete” Isaiah Smith, 24.

According to a federal grand jury indictment, the planning for the heist may have begun sometime in January after the couple showed up at a Chase branch in Palmdale to deposit a check for $315,301. The pair sought to withdraw about $200,000 but were told to return at a later date.

At one point, Grayes, a private security guard for Chase Bank, allegedly learned of the scheduled pickup from a bank teller and passed the information along to Wimbley and Smith, according to the indictment.

On Feb. 9, the two suspects allegedly drove to the bank and waited in the parking lot for the victims to pick up the money.

Federal investigators said that, while working at the bank, Grayes sent a series of text messages and phone calls about the victims to an unnamed co-conspirator, who then passed the information along to Wimbley and Smith.

As the couple were leaving the bank with the cash, federal investigators alleged that Wimbley and Smith exited their vehicle with semiautomatic handguns, threatened to shoot the victims and stole the money.

Federal officials said that Wimbley then laundered the money by visiting the Commerce Casino and Hotel in Commerce beginning Feb. 10 through March 8, purchasing about $34,500 in gambling chips and cashing out about $168,700. On some of those visits, federal investigators said, Wimbley cashed out money without purchasing any chips.

The suspects, who are scheduled to be arraigned this month, have been charged with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by robbery and interference with commerce by robbery; and aiding in or using a firearm during a crime of violence. Wimbley is also charged with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, and three counts of money laundering. Meanwhile, Smith is facing murder charges in a separate case.

If convicted of all charges, the suspects would each face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

[ad_2]

Ruben Vives

Source link

October 10, 2024
Magnitude 4 earthquake rattles Southern California, the strongest to hit Ontario in a month

[ad_1]

A magnitude 4 earthquake rattled Southern California before dawn Sunday morning — the strongest in a series of modest earthquakes to strike near the Ontario International Airport in the last month.

Sunday’s 3:51 a.m. earthquake was the fifth of magnitude 3 or higher detected in Ontario since early September, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

“Moderate” shaking was felt in areas closest to the epicenter, the USGS said, as defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. That’s strong enough to awaken many people. “Weak” or “light” shaking may have been felt across a broad region, including the most populous portions of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, large swaths of Los Angeles and Orange counties, and parts of San Diego County.

People reported feeling the earthquake from Palmdale to San Diego. The USGS asked people to submit reports of what kind of shaking they may have felt — or didn’t feel — at the agency’s Did You Feel It? website.

Until Sunday, the strongest earthquake in the past month to hit San Bernardino County’s fourth most populous city occurred on Sept. 7, when a magnitude 3.9 earthquake caused “light” shaking to be felt close to the epicenter. Light shaking is enough to disturb windows and dishes and can rock standing cars noticeably.

The epicenter of Sunday’s earthquake was centered about one-third of a mile southeast of where the 60 Freeway meets Archibald Avenue. That’s about 500 feet south of Mountain View Elementary School and half a mile east of the Whispering Lakes Golf Course.

The USGS said that its ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system was activated. People can download the earthquake early warning app for free at myshake.berkeley.edu.

Are you ready for when the Big One hits? Get ready for the next big earthquake by signing up for our Unshaken newsletter, which breaks down emergency preparedness into bite-size steps over six weeks. Learn more about earthquake kits, which apps you need, Lucy Jones’ most important advice and more at latimes.com/Unshaken.

[ad_2]

Rong-Gong Lin II

Source link

October 6, 2024
Palmdale landfill searched for missing infant’s remains; parents arrested in Utah

[ad_1]

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators have begun searching the Antelope Valley Landfill for the remains of an infant who disappeared in Palmdale earlier this month, law enforcement officials said late Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, this started off as a missing infant and now it is a death investigation,” Lt. Omar Camacho told The Times. “We’re searching [the landfill] based on where the investigation has taken us, and unfortunately we weren’t able to find anything today.”

The missing child, Baki Dewees, was born April 14 and last seen in Palmdale on May 3, according to a flier distributed by his family on Facebook.

“My family & I [are] desperately asking for your help,” the child’s great aunt wrote on Facebook. “Baki is only 3 weeks old. Please help us bring Baki home to his grandmother.”

Two days after giving birth, the mother — 25-year-old Rosealani Gaoa — was arrested in Ogden, Utah, on suspicion of aggravated child abuse, intentional child abuse and reckless child abuse, jail records show.

At the time, Camacho said, Gaoa’s four children and the baby’s father were all with her in Utah. Afterward, family welfare officials there took custody of the child at the center of the abuse allegations. Camacho referred further questions about the nature of that case to officials in Ogden.

“We didn’t investigate that case, nor did we have the specifics of it,” he said, noting that the alleged abuse occurred in Utah.

One law enforcement source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the victim in that case is Baki’s oldest sister.

After Gaoa’s arrest, the children’s father, Yusuf Dewees, 24, left Utah with the couple’s three remaining children and returned to Palmdale, officials said.

But he came back to Ogden several days later, possibly so that authorities there could interview him, Camacho said. Jail records show he was arrested on May 7 and held without bail on suspicion of obstruction of justice and making a false statement.

The law enforcement source not cleared to speak publicly said Dewees was arrested after being questioned about Baki’s disappearance and allegedly lying to police in Ogden. Camacho did not say whether the alleged obstruction stemmed from the incidents in California or in Utah.

Ogden Police Lt. Glen Buss said police in Utah first contacted Dewees and Gaoa at a homeless shelter. He referred additional questions about the nature of their arrest to the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, saying the two departments are working in conjunction.

The case came to the attention of Sheriff’s Department officials after the infant’s grandmother made a missing person report sometime around May 8. Deputies responded to the 2300 block of Carolyn Drive in Palmdale regarding her call, according to a news release. Camacho said the matter was forwarded to the department’s Homicide Bureau a day later. On Tuesday, he said it was still too early in the investigation to release information about why officials believe the child is dead or how it is suspected he died.

Searchers who began combing the landfill on Tuesday were looking for “specific things,” Camacho said. But he said finding the child’s remains could prove a difficult undertaking that might require cutting down through layers of refuse. The search could use machinery or cadaver dogs, he said, but “the only way possible at times is just with human hands.”

Authorities will resume their search on Wednesday, according to the law enforcement source, who said the couple lives in Palmdale.

“If we had believed that the child was still alive we would have asked the public for help,” Camacho said. “But at this point in time, unfortunately, that’s not the case. Now we’re just trying to get some closure for the family.”

The remaining two children in California have since been removed by child welfare officials, Camacho said. It was not clear why the family was in Utah.

[ad_2]

James Queally, Keri Blakinger

Source link

May 14, 2024
Report highlights Antelope Valley as trouble spot for child-abuse cases

[ad_1]

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — A new report details a pattern of child abuse and neglect cases happening in the Antelope Valley more frequently than in other parts of Southern California.

The desert communities have become notorious for several highly-publicized cases involving abuse and deaths of young children, including 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in 2013 in Palmdale, 10-year-old Anthony Avalos of Lancaster in 2018 and 4-year-old Noah Cuatro of Palmdale in 2019.

Data from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services show the Antelope Valley had the highest rate of child deaths of the county’s eight service areas from 2015 to 2023. DCFS reported 23 such cases during that period, for a rate of 21 cases per 100,000 children living in the region.

“The tragedies in the Antelope Valley reflect a critical need for community resources and a critical need for agencies to work together,” said Deanne Durfee, executive director of the Inter-agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Durfee says her organization is teaming up with other agencies to target and stop child abuse. She says there needs to be more community outreach to prevent children from being abused or killed.

ICAN hosted its annual policy committee meeting in downtown Los Angeles, joined by law enforcement and other agencies, including Sheriff Robert Luna.

“I don’t want to see one of these (cases) again,” Luna said. “One is way too many. As you sit here through this meeting you’ll hear conversations – we’ll challenge each other and just make sure that we’re pushing each other to the point where we’re protecting every child in this county.”

ICAN says the aim is to focus more attention on getting DCFS and other agencies under one big tent to prevent more children from being abused or killed. The organization also says the crisis in childhood depression, drug use, mental illness and suicide must be addressed and solutions found.

Copyright © 2024 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

[ad_2]

Leo Stallworth

Source link

January 25, 2024
After Times investigation, L.A. County seeks to add kennels, review policies at animal shelters

[ad_1]

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is seeking to add kennels to the Palmdale Animal Care Center and make them more accessible to visitors following a Times investigation into rising dog euthanasia rates in the Antelope Valley.

At a meeting of the board Tuesday, Supervisors Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Palmdale and Lancaster, and Hilda Solis brought forward a motion asking that the county’s Department of Animal Care and Control look into building temporary kennels and search for other facilities that could be used to house more dogs.

The urgent motion received unanimous approval.

“Right now, during this crisis in our animal care centers, we must find creative ways to do better, especially up in the Antelope Valley,” Barger said at the meeting. “It is clear that there are many issues here and there is a need for urgent and effective improvements.”

The move came after The Times found that the two Antelope Valley shelters euthanize more dogs — and at a higher rate — than other county facilities, as well as those operated by Los Angeles, Long Beach and other municipalities.

Supervisors also directed staff to review department policies and practices after The Times identified inconsistencies in outreach to rescue organizations about dogs that are most at risk of euthanasia.

A spokesperson for the Department of Animal Care and Control said officials were unavailable Tuesday afternoon to provide a comment.

The Palmdale shelter, which opened in 2016, was meant to relieve overcrowding at the nearby Lancaster shelter and reduce the number of dogs being euthanized there.

But together, the Palmdale and Lancaster shelters’ dog euthanasia rates have nearly doubled in recent years — from about 15% in 2018 to 28% through this August. And they’re on track this year to kill dogs at nearly twice the average rate of the other five county-run facilities, The Times found.

More recent statistics released by the department on the Antelope Valley sites show similar rates. From July through October, the Palmdale shelter euthanized 352 of 1,388 dogs impounded, or 25%. In Lancaster, 470 of 1,500 dogs impounded during that time, or 31%, were put down. Cats are euthanized at even higher rates.

In September, the supervisors requested that the department look into expanding the Palmdale facility, saying its limited housing capacity was inadequate to serve the region.

The Palmdale shelter has 68 dog kennels, but through August this year had taken in more dogs than larger shelters, including Baldwin Park, which has more than 190 dog kennels, and Downey, which has 180.

Barger and Solis’ motion Tuesday said it could cost more than $25 million to expand the Palmdale shelter. The motion requested more cost-effective, short-term solutions to house more dogs, and addressed the shelter’s accessibility problems as well.

In Palmdale, for example, most dogs are kept in an area that the public can visit only with a staff or volunteer escort. People wanting information about dogs available for adoption can view a corkboard pinned with the animals’ photos, but those are often dark or of poor quality. Some dogs in Baldwin Park also require an escort to be seen.

The board requested recommendations Tuesday for allowing visitors to view and access all adoptable dogs in Palmdale and Baldwin Park without an escort.

The Times also reported on cases when the shelters failed to follow department guidelines to enlist help from rescue groups before putting a dog down. In other cases, dogs were euthanized within days of being featured at adoption events or on social media, which some rescuers and volunteers said did not give the public enough time to adopt them.

1

2

1. Bubblegum, left, and Heartful were both euthanized days after an adoption event. (Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control)

In one example, Pie, a tan Siberian Husky, was euthanized at the Palmdale shelter in March, three days after being featured at an adoption event at an Ashley furniture store. Bubblegum and Heartful, two white-and-brown pit bulls who attended the same event, were euthanized a day after that. The reason listed for all three was that they were unable to be placed in a home.

Solis referenced the case of Bowie, a 4-month-old terrier at the Baldwin Park shelter who was put down without any rescue requests, sparking outrage from many rescue groups and the public.

“We have consistently been hearing and reading reports that not only the rates of euthanasia have gone up, but mistakes have also been made leading to unnecessary deaths of potential pets,” Solis said.

On Tuesday, county Supervisor Hilda Solis invoked the memory of Bowie, a 4-month-old terrier who was reportedly put down at the Baldwin Park shelter despite a rescue group’s interest in saving him.

(Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control)

Supervisor Holly Mitchell asked for ideas on how the county could help prevent owners from relinquishing their pets.

“I really would hope that we could be a little more proactive in figuring out what we can do to support our department in proactively asking people, you know, ‘What do you need?’” Mitchell said, adding that people may need food vouchers or help with veterinary expenses.

Marcia Mayeda, director of the county’s Department of Animal Care and Control, said in a June report to the board that severe staffing shortages were hampering efforts to provide basic animal care and bring down euthanasia numbers.

The Palmdale and Lancaster shelters, she said, would need more than triple the number of staff in the next five years to reduce euthanasia.

In Tuesday’s motion, the supervisors requested that animal control and human resources officials evaluate vacant positions at the Antelope Valley shelters and come up with strategies to hire qualified candidates.

[ad_2]

Alene Tchekmedyian, Alexandra E. Petri

Source link

December 5, 2023
This new nuclear stealth bomber was top secret. So why is the B-21 Raider flying over Palmdale?

[ad_1]

After years of secrecy, the B-21 Raider emerged from its Palmdale hangar Friday morning and took its first flight, soaring through the sky and giving plane enthusiasts, contractor employees and the public its first glimpse of the futuristic-looking bomber in air.

The B-21 bomber, which is being built by Northrop Grumman Corp., took off from the secretive Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale before heading north toward Edwards Air Force Base, said Matt Hartman, a photographer who was out in Palmdale in hopes of taking photos of the plane after he’d heard rumors that a flight might be imminent.

About 80 people crowded near the Palmdale Regional Airport to try to see the first flight with their own eyes. Once the bomber flew by, “you could hear a pin drop,” Hartman said.

The U.S. Air Force confirmed that the B-21 is in flight testing, and called it a “critical step” in the bomber’s test program. Flight testing includes not just flying operations but also ground and taxiing tests. Edwards Air Force Base is in charge of testing and evaluation for the B-21.

The flight test program “moves us another step closer to reaching operational capability,” Northrop Grumman said in a statement Friday. In December, Northrop Grumman unveiled the B-21 bomber for the first time, although that reveal only showcased the front of the aircraft. Technical details of the plane have so far been highly classified.

The Air Force plans to buy at least 100 B-21 stealth bombers by the mid-2030s for about $80 billion. Already, six B-21 bombers are in production, the Air Force said. The new planes will eventually replace the aging B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets.

Although the B-21’s flying-wing shape looks similar to that of the B-2, it has improved stealth technology and will be more supportable and maintainable than its predecessor, which has notoriously high maintenance costs.

The bomber is designed to fly both crewed and uncrewed missions, reflecting technological updates that were not available when the B-2 was built in the 1980s.

The Air Force plans to get its first few B-21 bombers, which are designed to fly long-range missions while evading radar detection, by the mid-2020s. The bomber is part of the U.S. military’s effort to update its nuclear triad, which includes warheads, submarines and missiles, as global rivals such as China also improve their weapons technology.

The program has boosted aerospace employment in the Antelope Valley, long known for its aerospace manufacturing jobs. In December, more than 7,000 people were employed at Northrop Grumman’s Antelope Valley facilities, which is double the number there in 2015 when the company won the bomber contract.

The B-21 Raider stealth bomber is unveiled at Northrop Grumman, Dec. 2, 2022, in Palmdale, Calif. The B-21 Raider has taken its first flight, moving the futuristic warplane closer to becoming the nation’s next nuclear weapons stealth bomber.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

[ad_2]

Samantha Masunaga

Source link

November 10, 2023
California’s new budget covers $32 billion deficit while extending tax credits for film industry

[ad_1]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers approved a $310.8 billion budget on Tuesday that closes a nearly $32 billion budget deficit while also extending a lucrative tax break for the state’s iconic film and television industry.

The nation’s most populous state has had combined budget surpluses of well over $100 billion in the past few years, enabling the Democrats in charge to greatly expand government.

But this year, revenues slowed as inflation soared and the stock market struggled. California gets most of its revenue from taxes paid by the wealthy, making it more vulnerable to changes in the economy than other states. Last month, the administration of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom estimated the state’s spending would exceed revenues by over $30 billion.

California has cited two Northern California mushroom farms for health and safety violations and proposed more than $165,000 in fines five months after a worker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for big changes in the state’s building and permitting process.

California’s transit agencies are asking Democrats who control the state’s government to rescue them like Democrats in New York recently did.

Two insurance industry giants have stepped back from the California marketplace. They say that wildfire risk and soaring construction costs have prompted them to stop writing new policies.

The budget approved by lawmakers covers that deficit by cutting some spending — about $8 billion — while delaying other spending and shifting some expenses to other funds. The plan would borrow $6.1 billion and would set aside $37.8 billion in reserves, the most ever. Newsom has said he will sign it into law.

Despite the deficit, lawmakers agreed to extend tax credits for movie and television productions that film in the state. Those credits will reduce state revenues by up to $330 million per year. The big change is that those tax credits will be refundable. That means if a movie studio has credits that are worth more than what it owes in taxes, the state will pay the studio the difference in cash.

“It’s real hard to justify doing this when we’re not doing that for a lot of people who are struggling in California,” Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher said.

Others said the improved tax credits are needed as California faces competition from other states seeking to lure TV and movie productions out of California, which has long been synonymous with the glamor of Hollywood.

“It’s something I know people can argue over whether it benefits California or not, but it is iconic and it creates jobs,” Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins said.

California’s budget reflects the partisan divisions that permeate the country’s politics. Democrats praised the budget for avoiding painful cuts to health care and public education programs, two of the biggest areas of state spending. But Republicans criticized the budget as unsustainable. Republican Assemblymember Vince Fong noted the budget Democrats approved on Tuesday assumes much higher tax revenues than the projections from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

“If revenues come closer to the independent legislative analyst’s projections and if a recession occurs, not only will the deficits be larger, they will consume most, if not all, of our reserves,” Fong said.

The budget is a complex array of nearly two dozen bills that include much more than just spending decisions. It includes protections for the Joshua tree, a native desert plant at the center of a long debate about how to safeguard it from threats driven by climate change without adding unnecessary roadblocks to housing and solar development projects in areas where the tree grows.

The state will charge a fee to developers who remove the trees, pledging to use the money to conserve the species. Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, called the bill an “innovative approach” to balancing tree preservation and development efforts.

But Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a Republican representing Palmdale, a Southern California city in the Mojave Desert where many of the trees grow, worried the bill will hinder housing development in his district.

“There’s never been a bill that’s more impactful to my desert community than this one,” Lackey said.

The budget includes a lifeline for public transit agencies struggling to survive following steep declines in riders during the coronavirus pandemic. It allows transit agencies to use some of the $5.1 billion in funding over the next three years for operations.

Still, some San Francisco Bay-area lawmakers said the spending wasn’t enough to forestall painful service cuts over the next few years. On Monday, they proposed legislation that would increase tolls on seven state-owned bridges — including the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — by $1.50 over the next five years.

Civil liberties groups were upset that the budget allows state officials to withhold some records related to investigations of police misconduct until 2027, a delay the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training said was necessary as it prepares to handle an estimated 3,400 cases each year.

Lawmakers agreed to impose a new tax on the private companies that contract with the state to administer Medicaid benefits. The tax will bring in an estimated $32 billion over the next four years, with some of the money going to doctors while other funding will go to rural hospitals struggling to avoid bankruptcy.

“This will fundamentally help us change how we do health care,” Democratic state Sen. Anna Caballero said.

The budget includes more than $2.8 billion to increase pay for state-subsidized child care workers. But it delays until next year funding for an additional 20,000 slots in the state’s subsidized child care program for low-income families.

___

Associated Press writer Sophie Austin contributed to this report. Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on Twitter: @sophieadanna

[ad_2]

Source link

June 27, 2023
Pentagon debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider

[ad_1]

PALMDALE , Calif. (AP) — America’s newest nuclear stealth bomber made its debut Friday after years of secret development and as part of the Pentagon’s answer to rising concerns over a future conflict with China.

The B-21 Raider is the first new American bomber aircraft in more than 30 years. Almost every aspect of the program is classified.

As evening fell over the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, the public got its first glimpse of the Raider in a tightly controlled ceremony. It started with a flyover of the three bombers still in service: the B-52 Stratofortress, the B-1 Lancer and the B-2 Spirit. Then the hangar doors slowly opened and the B-21 was towed partially out of the building.

“This isn’t just another airplane,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. “It’s the embodiment of America’s determination to defend the republic that we all love.”

The B-21 is part of the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China’s rapid military modernization.

China is on track to have 1,500 nuclear weapons by 2035, and its gains in hypersonics, cyber warfare and space capabilities present “the most consequential and systemic challenge to U.S. national security and the free and open international system,” the Pentagon said this week in its annual China report.

”We needed a new bomber for the 21st Century that would allow us to take on much more complicated threats, like the threats that we fear we would one day face from China, Russia, ” said Deborah Lee James, the Air Force secretary when the Raider contract was announced in 2015.

While the Raider may resemble the B-2, once you get inside, the similarities stop, said Kathy Warden, chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp., which is building the bomber.

“The way it operates internally is extremely advanced compared to the B-2, because the technology has evolved so much in terms of the computing capability that we can now embed in the software of the B-21,” Warden said.

Other changes include advanced materials used in coatings to make the bomber harder to detect, Austin said.

“Fifty years of advances in low-observable technology have gone into this aircraft,” Austin said. “Even the most sophisticated air defense systems will struggle to detect a B-21 in the sky.”

Other advances likely include new ways to control electronic emissions, so the bomber could spoof adversary radars and disguise itself as another object, and use of new propulsion technologies, several defense analysts said.

“It is incredibly low observability,” Warden said. “You’ll hear it, but you really won’t see it.”

Six Raiders are in production. The Air Force plans to build 100 that can deploy either nuclear weapons or conventional bombs and can be used with or without a human crew. Both the Air Force and Northrop also point to the Raider’s relatively quick development: The bomber went from contract award to debut in seven years. Other new fighter and ship programs have taken decades.

The cost of the bombers is unknown. The Air Force previously put the price at an average cost of $550 million each in 2010 dollars — roughly $753 million today — but it’s unclear how much is actually being spent. The total will depend on how many bombers the Pentagon buys.

“We will soon fly this aircraft, test it, and then move it into production. And we will build the bomber force in numbers suited to the strategic environment ahead,” Austin said.

The undisclosed cost troubles government watchdogs.

“It might be a big challenge for us to do our normal analysis of a major program like this,” said Dan Grazier, a senior defense policy fellow at the Project on Government Oversight. “It’s easy to say that the B-21 is still on schedule before it actually flies. Because it’s only when one of these programs goes into the actual testing phase when real problems are discovered.” That, he said, is when schedules start to slip and costs rise.

The B-2 was also envisioned to be a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, but the Air Force built only 21, due to cost overruns and a changed security environment after the Soviet Union fell. Fewer than that are ready to fly on any given day due to the significant maintenance needs of the aging bomber.

The B-21 Raider, which takes its name from the 1942 Doolittle Raid over Tokyo, will be slightly smaller than the B-2 to increase its range, Warden said. It won’t make its first flight until 2023. However, Warden said Northrop Grumman has used advanced computing to test the bomber’s performance using a digital twin, a virtual replica of the one unveiled Friday.

Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota will house the bomber’s first training program and squadron, though the bombers are also expected to be stationed at bases in Texas and Missouri.

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican of South Dakota, led the state’s bid to host the bomber program. In a statement, he called it “the most advanced weapon system ever developed by our country to defend ourselves and our allies.”

Northrop Grumman has also incorporated maintenance lessons learned from the B-2, Warden said.

In October 2001, B-2 pilots set a record when they flew 44 hours straight to drop the first bombs in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. The B-2 often does long round-trip missions because there are few hangars globally that can accommodate its wingspan, which limits where it can land for maintenance. The hangars also must be air-conditioned because the Spirit’s windows don’t open and hot climates can cook cockpit electronics.

The new Raider will also get new hangars to accommodate its size and complexity, Warden said.

However, with the Raider’s extended range, ’it won’t need to be based in-theater,” Austin said. “It won’t need logistical support to hold any target at risk.”

A final noticeable difference was in the debut itself. While both went public in Palmdale, the B-2 was rolled outdoors in 1988 amid much public fanfare. Given advances in surveillance satellites and cameras, the Raider was just partially exposed, keeping its sensitive propulsion systems and sensors under the hangar and protected from overhead eyes.

“The magic of the platform,” Warden said, “is what you don’t see.”

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the Air Force at https://apnews.com/hub/air-force.

___

This story has been corrected to show the B-2 rollout was in 1988, not 1989.

[ad_2]

Source link

December 2, 2022