Photographers captured some unbelievable pictures of the B-21 Raider refueling from a KC-135 throughout a take a look at over the Mojave Desert.
A Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider was noticed performing aerial refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker over Jap California on Mar. 10, 2026. The air-to-air refueling mission, which lasted 5 hours and 33 minutes, was documented by a number of photographers who had been capable of shot some unbelievable pictures of the primary Raider prototype behind the particular outfitted tanker based mostly out of Edwards Air Pressure Base,.
pic.twitter.com/nGJrfp8PSk
— T. Ace (@minor_triad) March 10, 2026
Amongst them, there have been additionally our contributors Jarod Hamilton and Ian Recchio who took the photographs of the AAR (Air-to-Air Refueling) exercise over the Mojave Desert.
I imagine I captured a “first” at the moment. 🙌#b21 #b21raider #stealthbomber pic.twitter.com/ZHj1WnTTQk
— jmh.creates (@JarodMHamilton) March 10, 2026
The photographs not solely present the presence of the standard F-16 chase aircraft, but additionally a enterprise jet modified as testbed in some way concerned within the testing exercise.
The testbed was recognized as being N879AD out of Mojave. This plane is especially fascinating, as it’s the solely Douglas NC9D used as a testbed by Raytheon.
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-31 #AC17C9/168277/N879ADOut of Mojave.@Borrowed7Time @N214WN @norb420 pic.twitter.com/9arsUIHeSw
— 1776Girl (@sipjack1776) March 10, 2026
Whereas the zoom utilized by the photographers could have distorted them a little bit, the pictures nonetheless present a helpful dimension comparability with the tanker, suggesting that the B-21 might be larger than we anticipated.
Apparently, the tanker; serial quantity #61-0320, designated as an NKC-135 as a result of it carries particular tools required to assist the testing of different plane, might be tracked on-line throughout the entire mission. Flightradar24 knowledge exhibits that the refueling altitude for the mission was FL230 (23,000 ft).
As we lately reported, the U.S. Air Pressure and Northrop Grumman are working to speed up the manufacturing and the supply of the B-21 Raider, with the primary bomber arriving at Ellsworth Air Pressure Base, South Dakota, subsequent 12 months. Actually, the Division of the Air Pressure and Northrop Grumman have introduced an settlement to increase the manufacturing of the brand new B-21 Raider stealth bomber and speed up the supply.
Beforehand, Air Pressure officers mentioned the B-21 was anticipated to be prepared for service round 2026 or 2027. Extra lately, the service has confirmed that the primary B-21 is on observe for the supply to Ellsworth AFB, the kind’s first operational base, in 2027.
Work is already ongoing at Ellsworth to arrange it for the arrival of the brand new platform, with a number of building tasks in progress to arrange the required infrastructure. Among the many tasks was additionally the runway enlargement work which required the bottom’s B-1B Lancer bombers to briefly relocate to Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota.
For the time being, an unspecified variety of plane are at the moment in manufacturing, with ultimate meeting performed at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, California, facility, the identical the place additionally the B-2 Spirit was constructed. A second B-21 prototype was delivered on schedule to Edwards Air Pressure Base, California, in September 2025. As we defined again then, not like the primary one, the latter is just not outfitted with the air knowledge probe and the trailing cone normally mounted on prototype plane as a part of preliminary flight testing. Because the orange probe is clearly seen within the pictures captured by Recchio and Hamilton, we are able to conclude that the one performing the primary (no less than documented) aerial refueling take a look at was the primary prototype.
