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The U.S. Air Force has officially decided that the B-21 Raider will be flown by a crew consisting of two pilots, just like the B-2 is today. The service had previously considered operating the bomber with just one pilot alongside a weapon systems officer (WSO), or ‘wizzo.’ The plan is now to transition some number of qualifying WSOs and combat systems officers (CSOs) to become pilots for the future B-21 fleet.

The formal announcement about the standard two-pilot crew complement for the B-21 came yesterday. This follows the Air Force’s announcement in June that an operational test pilot had taken the controls of a pre-production Raider for the first time.

A pre-production B-21 bomber seen from above during aerial refueling testing. USAF

“Following careful analysis of the B-21’s advanced capabilities, Air Force leadership determined that a two-pilot configuration optimally supports the aircraft’s mission profile,” according to an official release. “To maximize the lethality and survivability of the Raider, it is imperative to retain the deep tactical and combat experience currently residing within the WSO and CSO communities.”

“The Air Force is establishing a pilot transition program for select weapons system officers and combat systems officers who will be chosen to attend pilot training with a follow-on assignment to the B-21,” the release added. “Eligible officers will be provided with additional information via command channels when available.”

The Raider is still in development, but the Air Force is now aiming to begin fielding the bombers next year at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The stated plan remains to acquire at least 100 B-21s, but service officials have said they plan to roll out a more precise figure next year , which is widely expected to be larger. This will also have an impact on the total number of pilots required.

The first two pre-production B-21 Raider bombers seen together. USAF

“The pilots will be 11B bomber pilots and the Air Force is still working through the number of B-21 pilots we will have,” an Air Force spokesperson told TWZ directly today when asked for more information about the crewing decision.

“11B” here is the basic Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) for bomber pilots. Suffixes are used to reflect specific bomber types that individuals are assigned to fly. This administrative code should not in any way be confused with the U.S. Army’s 11B Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) for infantrymen.

As mentioned, the standard crew complement for a B-2 bomber is also two pilots. There is also a small cot that allows for one pilot to sleep while the other flies during portions of a sortie, which can sometimes stretch across multiple days. Having two pilots also offers an additional margin of safety. That being said, for single-pilot B-21 operations, the Air Force could have provided WSOs with additional training to be able to fly the aircraft in an emergency.

“I think the B-21 is going to be largely like the B-2 in how it supports the crews,” Air Force Gen. Stephen Davis, head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), told TWZ in an interview with our Howard Altman in January. “There’s enough room for crew members to go on rest status. There’s a place to go to the bathroom, obviously, and to prepare food. All those things will exist in the B-21.”

This was Davis’ first interview since taking charge of AFGSC, which oversees the Air Force’s bomber fleets, as well as other strategic capabilities. His predecessor, now-retired Gen. Thomas Bussiere, had been the one to recommend operating the B-21 with one pilot and one WSO.

“In terms of the crew complement for the B-21, that’s an ongoing discussion within the Department of the Air Force. No final decision has been made. Frankly, we had the same discussion on the B-2 on how it would be manned. And ultimately, they went with two pilots, in part because of the cost of the platform and the number they were producing,” Davis said in his interview with us when asked about this. “Actually, at the time, it was a requirement to have navigator or WSO experience to be a B-2 pilot. We went away from that over time, but that was one of the initial requirements.”

This latter point is particularly notable now that the Air Force has formally announced that it will transition WSOs and CSOs into B-21 pilots.

“With B-21 pilots, it’s a different plane, as it has a number of different capabilities,” Davis had added. “So we think that the right thing to do is look carefully at that crew complement and decide how to best make that the most capable combat platform we can.”

A pre-production B-21 seen during flight testing. USAF

It remains unclear whether or not the Air Force might still consider single-pilot B-21 operations down the line. There was at least a stated desire for an optionally piloted mode, or the means to rapidly integrate one, as part of the requirements for the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) program that led to the Raider. TWZ highlighted this all the way back in 2017 after we obtained a heavily redacted copy of a Department of Defense Inspector General report titled “Audit of the Acquisition of the Long Range Strike Bomber,” via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). That report was dated September 8, 2015, the same year Northrop Grumman was chosen as the winner of the LRS-B competition.

When reports first emerged that the Air Force was considering single-pilot B-21 operations in November 2025, TWZ pointed out that there were strong signs that a high level of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) infused autonomy had already been baked into the design.

While those capabilities might someday open doors to pilot-optional or uncrewed modes for the B-21, they could also be very beneficial for human pilots flying the bombers now. For years now, the U.S. military has been heavily investing publicly in ‘virtual co-pilot’ type technologies to increase safety margins and reduce workload for aircrew on fixed-wing planes and helicopters . This is on top of any work being done in the classified realm.

As we wrote previously :

“Since the early 2010s, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been notably supporting the development of AI ‘co-pilots’ that could be used on helicopters and fixed aircraft to help increase safety margins and reduce workload for human pilots through a program called the Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) . ALIAS’ work has been centered on Lockheed Martin’s MATRIX autonomy flight control software package.”

“Other companies, such as Shield AI and Merlin , have been developing similar autonomy packages and steadily growing their capabilities. Merlin has been notably working toward integrating its autonomy software onto an Air Force KC-135 tanker. Shield AI’s Hivemind has already been integrated onto a host of crewed and uncrewed platforms. It is also worth noting that the B-21 has been in development for more than a decade, and its capabilities in this regard would have been way ahead of its time.”

“An AI agent would offer a B-21 crew additional layers of redundancy and added safety margins, as well as just helping to reduce total workload, which could offset risks associated with having just one pilot. If the functions of that virtual co-pilot extend to offering well-formulated tactical advice, such as whether or not to attack, jam, or avoid a threat altogether along the B-21’s carefully calculated ‘blue line’ flight path , it could also offer an important boost in survivability and tactical flexibility.”

Otherwise, the B-21 continues to be a model acquisition program that has been able to stay largely on schedule and budget, despite at least some hurdles , according to both U.S. military officials and members of Congress. In February, the Air Force announced that it was boosting the rate of production of the bombers to help accelerate their fielding.

When the first B-21 touches down at Ellsworth Air Force Base, we can now expect it to be flown by a crew consisting of two pilots.

Howard Altman contributed to this story.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

The post USAF Decides Against Flying B-21 Raiders With Just One Pilot appeared first on TWZ .

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HP Tuners now supports tuning the C8 Corvette’s dual-clutch transmission.

Transmission tuning was the final obstacle for complete C8 powertrain calibration.

High-horsepower builds should benefit from improved shifting and torque management.

For years, building a truly fast C8 Corvette meant living with one major compromise. While tuners had already figured out how to recalibrate the mid-engine Corvette’s LT2 V8, its eight-speed dual-clutch transmission remained stubbornly off limits, forcing shops to work around factory programming that was never designed for four-digit horsepower. Now that barrier has finally fallen.

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HP Tuners has announced support for the transmission control module (TCM) used in every 2020-2026 C8 Corvette, giving enthusiasts complete access to both the engine and transmission for the first time. While this might sound like a niche software update, it’s arguably one of the biggest developments for the C8 aftermarket since engine tuning became available.

Read: Manhart Proves The Old BMW 7-Series Did It Best

According to HotRod , General Motors ‘ Global B electrical architecture proved far tougher to crack than previous generations. Rather than simply locking calibration tables, the system uses encrypted firmware, signed software, and VIN-specific security measures that kept aftermarket developers locked out for years.

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In other words, shops could extract far more power from the 6.2-liter LT2 V8 than Chevrolet ever intended, but the transmission remained calibrated for a naturally aspirated engine producing up to 495 hp (369 kW). As torque climbed, the factory software would often intervene by softening shifts, reducing engine torque, slipping the clutches, or even triggering limp mode to protect the gearbox.

The newly supported controller governs the TREMEC TR-9080 eight-speed dual-clutch transmission fitted across the C8 range, and unlocking it allows tuners to recalibrate shift behavior, clutch pressures, torque limits, rev limits, and other transmission strategies to better match heavily modified engines. In fact, we already have proof that this gearbox can handle quite a bit of power.

Brandon Leeb of Elite Tuned tells HotRod that, “We just got done testing the new TCM file on this car behind me, and I’m happy to report that with factory clutches and no pressure controller box, we successfully shifted this car at well over 1,000 horsepower.” Thanks to this new access, we expect to see plenty of similar examples pop up in the coming weeks and months. Go forth and build, horsepower tuners.

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The Palworld 1.0 update sure is a big one, and with all of the new pals, weapons, and zones to track it's easy to miss the little things—like new resources for crafting. As I climbed the revamped tech tree again, I breezed through most recipes until I ran into hardwood. It's a new tier of the basic building block you'll see pop up in later level recipes (around 40 to 50), after planks.

After deforesting a few islands, I finally realized I'd missed some spots to farm hardwood that were right in front of me. To save you the same headache, here's how to get hardwood in Palworld .

Palworld hardwood location

Head to the Twilight Dunes or Sakurajima

(Image: © Pocketpair)

You can find hardwood fairly early on in the Twilight Dunes , then later upon reaching the Dancing Sakura Shrine area. For easy reference, locate and unlock one of these fast travel locations:

Anubis Dunes - Northeast of the Anubis statue and boss arena

Moonflower Tower Entrance - Northwest of the Sakurajima Watchtower statue

You shouldn't need anything special to harvest hardwood. I was able to harvest trees in both zones with the Metal Axe just fine.

In the Twilight Dunes , hardwood drops from the twisting, spiky-leaved trees.

Around the Sakura shrine , hardwood drops from any Sakura tree with a red or white trunk.

Make sure you gather a hefty stack and unlock a few of the surrounding fast travel statues, or just make a nearby base for easy access. You'll need 10 hardwood per High Quality Wooden Board when you unlock the craft at level 43 in the tech tree.

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China's sprawling state-owned rocket developer, maker of the country's Long March rocket family, announced it recovered a reusable orbital-class booster for the first time Friday in the South China Sea.

The milestone mission began with the liftoff of a Long March 10B rocket from the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site on Hainan Island, China's southernmost province. Powered by seven kerosene-fueled engines, the approximately 209-foot-tall (63.6-meter) rocket took off at 12:15 am EDT (04:15 UTC), or 12:15 pm local time at the seaside spaceport at Wenchang.

About 10 minutes later, the Long March 10B booster descended from space and guided itself into a four-legged frame affixed to an offshore vessel. Tensioned cables stretched over the ship in a grid pattern captured the rocket as it shut down its landing engines, leaving the smoldering booster hanging in midair. The rocket's upper stage continued into orbit and deployed a payload known only as CX-26. Chinese officials hailed the flight as a "complete success."

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American businessman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is an individual who was among the earliest to be involved in the early internet boom. Now, the founder of Netscape and co-author of Mosaic – two iconic web browsers – has fully committed to AI.

AI maximalism

One year after OpenAI launched ChatGPT, the technology veteran Andreessen published an essay that advocated for a fully-fledged acceleration of the AI buildout.

Quote of the day

This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here .

In this overwhelmingly optimistic manifesto, he argued that should AI mature and become a more sophisticated and universally utilized technology, machine intelligence that surpasses human capabilities would save countless lives.

For example, medicine is in the "stone age", he wrote, and a combined machine and human intelligence would be able to work on new cures. There's also the scope for improving the lot of mankind by, for instance, using AI to solve problems around nuclear fusion – bringing clean and cheaper energy to people around the world.

AI realism

His essay is certainly a full-throated attack on all those who have (and continue to) advocate for a pause to AI development so that scientists can properly assess and mitigate any risks. And there are plenty of those.

He describes his enemies as "bad ideas" rather than "bad people" and highlights various labels used, in his view, to stagnate progress – including "existential risk" and "tech ethics".

Despite progressing at pace in terms of capital investment and the expansion of the technology into businesses and into day-to-day life, the AI buildout has reached something of a plateau.

Not only are there arguably diminishing returns on most public-facing models, but critical bottlenecks like energy – and also components like memory – might mean deceleration is an inevitability, whether or not Andreessen or others like it.