US Air Force appears to troll China with photos of a secret B-21 bomber

The US Air Force based are being accused of trolling China with a new image of its next-generation stealth bomber.

The B-21 Raider project is one of the most secret on Earth but the world knows of at least two that are in production with more on the production line.

The newer planes are set to replace America’s current strategic bombers – from the 66-year-old B-52 Stratofortress and the 30-year-old B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.

The aircraft are kept extremely well-hidden and no details about them are released to avoid enemies gaining influence for their own designs.

However, the US Air Force have done something very out of character, sharing a Tweet about an artist’s rendering of the new stealth plane.

It appears the US may be deliberately trolling opponents.

In the Tweet, you can see a grey swallow swooping over California’s Edwards Air Force Base instead of a new aircraft.

The USAF noted that “As with past renderings, this rendering is an artist’s interpretation of the B-21 design.”

It’s a very deceptive Tweet, and almost certainly created just as a bit of social media banter.

China is in a race to build its own sneaky aircraft, we know it’s called H-20. People know very little about it other than it was inspired by the B-2 Spirit. Prototypes are expected to already be in the air.

A rendering of their own airplane was released by Beijing’s state-controlled media, it showed a sharp-edged plane with a vertical tail.

The B-21 image shows it has no tail surfaces, like its B-2 predecessor. While making flight much easier, such control surfaces generally add significantly to the radar-reflective surface area.

The US Air Force has released an updated fact sheet about all the details around the B-21.

They call the project “a component of a larger family of systems for conventional Long-Range Strike, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, electronic attack, communication and other capabilities.”