Since its inception, the B-2 Spirit has been the epitome of power the United States Air Force can boast of—a silent, long-range, and almost indomitable spacecraft. Moreover, it could bypass the most complicated air defense systems and change the whole war-fighting style. Except for the story, science, and consequences of the B-2, everything else is comparable with the new generation bombers of the future.
Those new-generation aircraft are the General Electric Northrop B-21 Raider. The hardships of these aircraft became a thing of the past when this aircraft took its first flight in November 2023. Besides greater stealth and adaptability, it can function either with or without a crew, and it is thus predicted to take over the B-2 fleet gradually. The Raider is set to become the face of strategic airpower for the coming decades, with a conventional as well as a nuclear payload capability, equipped with sensors, and solo-combat systems all technologically progressed as part of this plan to make nearly 100 bombers.
The building of the B-2 was a completely different challenge in stealth aviation. In fact, the folks at Northrop Grumman didn’t only build a plane, they developed the whole line of apparatuses, methods, and procedures to give that life. Its airframe is primarily off carbon fiber composites and consists of over 10,000 individual components joined to provide both structural and radar-absorption capabilities.
Machines with very high precision and the use of very innovative 3D modeling put the bar for airplane assembly way beyond the standard level of that time during the eighties and nineties. But the use of composites in the construction of aircraft is now a regular practice, and universities teach it as a subject, and still, most of the advanced aspects of stealth are kept under very strict control.
The B-2 needed to be very invisible, and at the same time, it had to have a lot of endurance. Just two people were to be on the plane, so the cockpit was made in such a way to be able to handle long flights, some were almost two days long. Behind the seats, there is a mini living room with a microwave, fridge, pantry, and even a toilet installed for a situation when the crews are in tight spaces and hard conditions. The pilots are not only experts in flying but also have to be good team players, and they must be able to operate under high-pressure and stressful situations.
It has not been any different with the B-2, which has always had a spectacular price. Each unit was worth over 2 billion dollars, and the cost of a flight hour was about $135,000. The maintenance is so detailed that after each sortie, the crew can take up to 36 hours to do their servicing, and their radar-absorbing skin has to be stored in hangars where the climate is controlled. Even then, the readiness rate of the fleet is around 50 percent, which is an indication of the difficulties in the maintenance of the aircraft.
In the same way, its firepower is striking. The B-2 is equipped with two internal bomb bays, and the ordnance it can carry may weigh as much as 40,000 pounds. The payload may be precision-guided bombs or nuclear warheads. Actually, it is the only American airplane that can perform the delivery of the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which can bore 200 feet of the most reinforced concrete, thus it is the deepest, most difficult, the hardest target condition unattainable.
Another major feature of the aircraft was its range. The B-2, without refueling, can fly a little less than 6000 miles, but if it is provided with air refueling, it can fly virtually anywhere in the world where it can attack. The longest and most famous combat sortie that the plane went to was a 44-hour trip to Afghanistan in 2001. After that, it has been flying missions in Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and recently in Iran.
As for the B-2, stealth was the main idea behind its conception. Similar to a bat, the shape of the flying wing, the use of carbon-graphite, the use of titanium components, and the fact that the engines are inside rather than outside all contribute to a reduction in radar, infrared, acoustic, and contrail signatures. The measure of its radar is about the size of a small bird when it is flying at high altitudes, and that is why it can easily escape advanced detection systems.
The point of the B-2’s extreme performance was indeed during Operation Midnight Hammer when the seven bombers left Missouri to hit Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, the underground nuclear plants of Iran. In fact, the B-2s that were supported by 125 aircraft and a submarine, firing Tomahawk missi droppedpedd 14 bunker-busting bombs in only 25 minutes.
Iran’s defense system was helpless. This action demonstrated the bomber’s unprecedented nature and power of entering the most protected airspace,ce thus the symbol of the highest strategic airpower that cannot be challenged.