Bombers are supposed to be the ones being hunted. The U.S. Air Force is now asking, in writing, whether they could do some of the hunting.

The service’s long-term fighter force structure report, sent to Congress last week and first reported by Aviation Week on 21 October 2026, lists “developing air-to-air capabilities on bombers” as one of the options it is evaluating to rebuild a tired fighter fleet. The obvious candidate is the B-21 Raider, the stealth bomber now in flight test at Edwards.

The report gives no detail on how far that work has gone or which bombers are involved. But it is the first time a B-21 air-to-air role has appeared in an official Air Force planning document sent to lawmakers rather than in a general’s musings at a conference.

What the fighter force report says about bombers

The report is mostly about fighters. Its headline goal, covered on Afterburner this week, is 1,509 combat-coded fighters by 2035, built around the F-35A, the F-15EX and the F-47. It warns of a “persistent decline” in aircraft availability across the tactical fleet, where the average jet is now more than 31 years old.

To close the gap, the Aeronautica militare degli Stati Uniti lists three recapitalisation options it is weighing: a new “capacity fighter”, which Aviation Week says most likely means the improved F-16 that Lockheed Martin is pitching; more reliance on Collaborative Combat Aircraft; and air-to-air capability on bombers. That last line is all the report says on the subject.

Lt. Gen. David Tabor, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, told reporters that CCAs would shape the future fighter plan and that a decision on the capacity fighter is not an “urgent” priority. He did not appear to address bombers, according to The War Zone.

An idea the Air Force has never taken off the table

The concept is older than the jet. In 2019, then-Maj. Gen. Scott Pleus warned that calling the next-generation air dominance aircraft a “fighter” meant thinking too narrowly, and floated a B-21 with air-to-air capability as one alternative. In 2024, the then chief of staff was asked the same question by Defense News.

In September 2025, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported that the service was studying a large flying-wing stealth aircraft, possibly based on the B-21, armed with dozens of air-to-air missiles. Crewed stealth fighters such as the F-22, F-35 and F-47, and possibly CCAs, would find and designate the targets; the “missileer” would shoot. Air-to-air capability had been left out of the B-21’s original requirements, partly because of cost and complexity.

The idea has its doubters. The same report quoted an official describing “major pushback” from Air Force Global Strike Command, which owns the bombers, and a former senior Air Force official who said CCAs made more sense for now.

Can the B-21 carry air-to-air missiles? Sandboxx looks at the case for an air-to-air Raider.

Why a bomber might make sense as a missile truck

The argument is about magazine depth. A fighter carries a handful of missiles; in a long war over the western Pacific, that runs out fast. One industry analyst told Air & Space Forces Magazine that in Pacific wargames “you run out of AMRAAMs in seven to nine days.” A big, stealthy bomber with internal bays, long range and powerful sensors could stay on station far longer and fire the new generation of very long-range missiles, such as the Navy’s AIM-174B and the AIM-260, now appearing on fighters.

The War Zone also points to the B-52 as a possible “arsenal ship” for longer-range weapons, and to the B-21’s potential to control CCA drones. None of that is in the report itself, and the Air Force has not explained how bombers would actually be used in the air-to-air fight. The War Zone reads the line as a hedge.

Cosa succederà dopo?

The question of numbers will shape everything. A new figure for the size of the B-21 fleet is expected in the Air Force’s fiscal 2028 budget proposal, The War Zone reports. Northrop Grumman was building about seven to eight B-21s a year in the 2020s, with Congress funding extra capacity.

Until then, the B-21 air-to-air idea remains exactly what the report calls it: an option under evaluation. It is no longer, however, just a thought experiment.

Sources: Aviation Week (21 Oct 2026), The War Zone (22 Oct 2026), Air & Space Forces Magazine (Sept 2025), Defense News