The US Air Force will showcase its new B-21 Raider on Friday, a high-tech stealth bomber that can reportedly carry nuclear and conventional missiles and is meant to operate without a crew.

The B-21, which will cost about $700 million per plane and will be the first new US bomber in decades, will eventually replace the B-1 and B-2 aircraft that initially flew during the Cold War.

US Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said, as quoted by AFP, that “the B-21 will be the backbone of our future bomber force. It will possess the range, access, and payload to penetrate the most highly-contested threat environments and hold any target around the globe at risk."

The first B-21 flight is scheduled for next year, and the Air Force intends to purchase at least 100 of the aircraft, as per Stefanek.

Six of the planes are presently being assembled and tested at Northrop Grumman's factory in Palmdale, California, where the reveal will take place.

Many details about the aircraft are being kept under wraps, but it supposedly provides considerable improvements over existing bombers in the US fleet.

Uncrewed flight is one of the new capabilities provided by the B-21. According to Stefanek, the plane is "provisioned for the eventuality, but there has been no decision to fly without a crew."

F-35 problems mounting

This came as the number of major flaws plaguing the US's F-35 fighter jets is mounting, meanwhile, the Pentagon is keeping the specifics of the problems under wraps.

On Oct.20, an F-35 fighter jet, the newest fighter in the US Navy fleet, crashed at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The pilot ejected and was taken to a hospital for observation, as per an announcement by the 388th Fighter Wing.

This was not the first-ever crash involving the F-35C stealth fighter plane. On January 24, a US Navy F35C Lightning II combat jet, which was conducting exercises in the South China Sea, crashed during an attempt to land on the US aircraft carrier's deck.

On 17 Nov 2021, an F35 fighter from the biggest British aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during a routine flight over the sea.

F-35As, were rated as "operationally unready" 234 times over a year and a half since January 2021 in South Korea due to malfunctions, according to South Korean lawmakers.

The multi-billion project's future is looking quite grim, with grounded fifth-generation fighters only being able to carry out missions for 12 days on average in 2021 and 11 days in the first half of 2022.