Layton • Next-generation long-range stealth bombers with nuclear capabilities — the “backbone” of the Air Force’s future bomber force — will be built from “key components” made in Utah, officials announced Wednesday.

Parts for the B-21 Raider aircraft, which are shaped somewhat like a pointed boomerang with a bulbous, low-profile cockpit, will come together at a new Northrop Grumman facility near Hill Air Force Base’s east side.

Tom Jones, president of Northrop Grumman’s aeronautics systems unit, expects operational B-21s “on the ramp” at South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base, home of the aircraft’s training unit, next year.

Northrop Grumman, which was awarded the development contract for these aircraft in 2015, held the ribbon-cutting event inside its new cavernous warehouse building, dubbed East Gate 3. The East Gate campus is made up of multiple buildings and comprises some 845,000 square feet. It has the capacity to support 1,500 manufacturing employees and engineers by 2032, Jones said.

This day, rows of chairs were arranged around a stage, above which an American flag, larger than the stage itself, hung from an orange, 40-ton crane. Equally huge images of the B-21 — in flight, outside a hangar and posed, its front profile cast in dark shadows — adorned the metal walls.

Northrop Grumman did not provide additional information about the parts it is manufacturing when asked. Officials at the announcement did not take questions.

The Air Force lists the B-21’s average unit procurement cost at $692 million in 2022 dollars.

The Utah facility is one of Northrop Grumman’s more recent expansions, meant to help put the U.S. on “wartime footing” — a directive from the Department of Defense, Jones said.

Northrop Grumman is the largest defense contractor in Utah, with more than 11,000 employees, the company said in a news release.

Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting included remarks from Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Layton Mayor Joy Petro.

“There’s never been, in my opinion, a more important time for military superiority for the free world than today,” Adams said, “and that’s what we’re doing here.” He referenced Russia’s war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and the ongoing Iran war.

Petro closed out the event, thanking Northrop Grumman for building in the city and connecting Layton to “one of the most advanced aircraft and consequential national defense programs in the world.”

She also hinted at more development to come, “with buildings like this and other plans in the future coming online,” but exactly what those plans could be is unclear.

Petro did not respond to The Salt Lake Tribune’s request for additional comment Wednesday afternoon.