Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

Northrop Grumman

B-2 Spirit

B-2 Spirit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Stealth Bomber” redirects here. For Stealth aircraft in general, see Stealth aircraft.
Role	Stealth bomber
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Northrop Corporation Northrop Grumman
First flight	17 July 1989
Introduction	April 1997
Status	Active service: 20 aircraft
Primary user	United States Air Force
Number built	21[1][2]
Program cost	US$44.75 billion (projected through 2004)[3]
Unit cost	$737 million (1997 air vehicle cost per plane)[3]

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

(also known as the Stealth Bomber) is a multirole heavy bomber with “low observable” stealth technology capable of penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses to deploy both conventional and nuclear weapons. Because of its astronomical capital and operations costs, the project was controversial in Congress and among Pentagon brass during its development and placement into service. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the United States scaled back initial plans to purchase 132 of the bombers. By the mid 1990s, Congress made appropriations to purchase a total fleet of just 21 of the bombers.

The cost of each “air vehicle,” averaged US$737 million per plane in 1997 dollars.^[3] Total procurement costs averaged US$929 million per plane, which includes spare parts, equipment, retrofitting, and software support.^[3] The total program cost, which includes development, engineering, and testing, averaged US$2.1 billion per aircraft.

The B-2 is operated exclusively by the United States Air Force. Though originally designed in the 1980s for Cold War operations scenarios, B-2s have been used in combat to drop bombs on Kosovo in the late 1990s, and see continued use during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A two officer crew aboard the bomber can drop up to eighty 500 lb (230 kg) class JDAM “smart” bombs, or sixteen 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs in a single pass through extremely dense anti-aircraft defenses. It has been the subject of espionage and counter-espionage activity. The bomber has been a prominent public spectacle at air shows since the 1990s.

In February 2008, a B2 crashed for the first time ever during Air Force operations, resulting in a loss of US$1.4 billion.

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber