Northrop Grumman opened East Gate 3 in Layton, Utah, on September 9, adding a manufacturing facility for the B-21 Raider as the company and Air Force expanded production capacity.
The opening gave a physical form to an agreement announced February 23. That agreement aimed to increase annual B-21 production capacity by 25 percent, using $4.5 billion already authorized and appropriated through fiscal 2025 reconciliation legislation.
Northrop did not disclose how many aircraft the new building would support annually or its share of the overall capacity increase.
The wider East Gate campus plan encompassed about 845,000 square feet across several facilities, with capacity for 1,500 employees by 2032. The campus figures do not describe East Gate 3 alone.
Manufacturing across several sites
Utah is part of a distributed production system. Northrop identified Palmdale, California, as the B-21’s final-assembly location and described a supplier network of more than 400 companies in 40 states.
It also described digital and augmented-reality tools intended to let technicians visualize tasks and work through problems with design engineers before beginning physical work. Such tools address the handoff between design and manufacturing, alongside the additional floor space.
The expansion also proceeded while B-21 aircraft remained in flight testing. In February, the Air Force said it expected aircraft at Ellsworth Air Force Base in 2027, a separate milestone from reaching a higher production rate.
Sources
- Powering the B-21 Raider — East Gate 3 Grand Opening — Northrop Grumman · 2026-09-09.
- DAF increases B-21 Raider production capacity to deliver combat capability faster — U.S. Air Force · 2026-02-23.
- Northrop Grumman Accelerating B-21 Raider Production — Northrop Grumman · 2026-02-23.