B-2 Bomber Cost - The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, was an American heavy strategic bomber designed to destroy air defenses with low-observability stealth technology. A two-crew subsonic flying wing, developed by Northrop, later Northrop Grumman, produced from 1987 to 2000.
The bomber can drop conventional and fusion weapons such as eighty 500 lb (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM GPS-guided bombs or six 2,400 lb (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only recognized aircraft capable of carrying large air-to-ground weapons in a stealth configuration.
B-2 Bomber Cost
Development began during the Carter administration as part of the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) project, which partially canceled the Mach 2-capable B-1A bomber as promised by ATB. But development challenges have delayed progress and driven up costs. Ultimately, the program produced 21 B-2s at an average cost of $2.13 billion (1997 dollars), including development, production, testing, production, and procurement.
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The project's high capital and operating costs led to debate in the US Congress before the end of the Cold War and dramatically reduced the need for a stealth aircraft designed to strike deep into Soviet territory. Thus, in the late 1980s and 1990s, lawmakers reduced the purchase of 132 bombers to just 21.
As of 2022, twenty B-2s are in service with the US Air Force. (One was destroyed in a 2008 accident.
) and the Air Force plans to use them until 2032 when the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider replaces them.
The B-2 could fly attack missions up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m); It has a refueling range of over 6,000 nautical miles (6,900 m; 11,000 km) and can travel over 10,000 nautical miles (12,000 m; 19,000 km) with one mid-air refueling. After the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk attack aircraft, it entered service in 1997 as the second aircraft designed with advanced stealth technology. Primarily designed as a nuclear bomber, the B-2 was first used in combat during the 1999 Kosovo War to drop conventional, non-nuclear weapons. It was later used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
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By the mid-1970s, military aircraft designers had learned a new way to avoid missiles and interceptors, known today as "stealth". The idea is to design an aircraft with an airframe that deflects or absorbs radar signals so that the radar unit reflects slightly. An aircraft with radar stealth capabilities can fly almost undetected and can only be attacked by weapons and systems that do not rely on radar. Although there are other detection measures such as human observation, infrared scanners, acoustic locators, their relatively low detection range or poorly designed technology allows many aircraft to go undetected or at least unnoticed, especially at night.
In 1974, DARPA asked US airlines for information about the largest radar cross section of an aircraft invisible to radar.
Initially, Northrop and McDonnell Douglas were selected for further development. Thanks to the development of the Lockheed A-12 and SR-71, Lockheed has experience in this area, including many stealth features, particularly its vertical stabilizers, the use of composite materials in key areas, and a common surface finish radar. Absorbent paint. A major improvement was the introduction of computer models used to predict radar reflections from flat surfaces, where the data collected inspired the design of "edged" aircraft. Development of the first such designs began in 1975 with the "Desperate Diamond" model produced by Lockheed to test the concept.
Plans were well advanced by the summer of 1975, when DARPA launched the Experimental Survival Test (XST) project. Northrop and Lockheed were awarded contracts for the first phase of testing. Lockheed received the sole award in April 1976 for the second phase of testing that led to the Have Blue program and ultimately the F-117 stealth attack aircraft.
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Northrop also has a technology demonstration aircraft, the Tacit Blue, developed at Field 51 in 1979. It covers stealth technology, LO (low observable), hover, curved surfaces, composite materials, electronic intelligence (ELINT) and battlespace surveillance aircraft experimental (BSAX). "Stealth technology developed from the program was later incorporated into other operational aircraft designs, including the B-2 stealth bomber."
By 1976, these programs had apparently evolved into a long-range tactical stealth bomber. President Carter became aware of these developments in 1977, and this appears to have been one of the main reasons for the cancellation of the B-1.
Further studies were ordered in early 1978, by which time the Have Blue platform had flown and proved the concepts. During the 1979 to 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan repeatedly argued that Carter was weak on defense, using the B-1 as a prime example. In response, on August 22, 1980, the Carter administration revealed that the United States Department of Defense was working on the development of stealth aircraft, including bombers.
The first public display of the B-2 was in Palmdale, California in 1988: the front of the B-2 featured a star pattern of five B-2 silhouettes.
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After evaluating the companies' proposals, the ATB selection was narrowed down to the Northrop/Boeing and Lockheed/Rockwell teams, and each was awarded a training contract for further work.
In 1979, designer Hal Markarian produced a sketch of the aircraft that bore a striking resemblance to the final design.
The Northrop design received the B-2 designation and the name "Spirit". The bomber's design was revised in the mid-1980s, resulting in the mission profile being changed from high altitude to low altitude towards the ground. The redesign delayed the B-2's first flight by two years and added about $1 billion to the program's cost.
MIT engineers and scientists helped assess the plane's mission effectiveness under a five-year secret contract in the 1980s.
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During design and development, the Northrop B-2 program was a block project; All program personnel require a secret clearance.
However, it was less closely managed than the Lockheed F-117 program; More people in the federal government are aware of the B-2 and more information about the project is available. Great efforts were made to ensure the safety of the B-2 design and technology during production and in service. Most, if not all, personnel working in the B-2 require a level of capability-specific clearance and are subject to extensive background checks by the USAF Special Branch.
A former Ford assembly plant in Pico Rivera, California was purchased and extensively remodeled; Factory employees are sworn to secrecy. For the avoidance of doubt, parts are usually purchased through front companies, military officials visit without uniforms, and employees are routinely polygraphed. Almost all information about the program was withheld from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and members of Congress until the mid-1980s.
Northrop (now Northrop Grumman) was the prime contractor for the B-2; Major subcontractors included Boeing, Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon), GE, and Vought Aircraft.
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In 1984, Northrop employee Thomas Cavanagh was arrested for trying to sell classified information at the Pico Rivera plant to the Soviet Union.
The B-2 was put on public display for the first time on November 22, 1988 at the 42nd Air Force Base, United States Air Force Base, Palmyra, California. This view was very limited and guests were not allowed to see the rear of the B-2. However, Aviation Week editors discovered that there were no airspace restrictions above the station area and took an aerial photograph hidden behind the plane.
The first public flight of the B-2 (s/n 82-1066 / AV-1) was on July 17, 1989 from Palmdale to Edwards AFB.
In October 2005, Noshir Gowadia, a designer who worked on the B-2's propulsion system, was arrested for selling classified information to China.
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In the early 1990s, the Soviet Union collapsed, effectively eliminating the Spirit's primary Cold War mission. Due to budget pressures and congressional opposition, in his 1992 State of the Union address, President George H.W. Bush announced that B-2 production would be limited to 20 aircraft.
However, in 1996, the Clinton administration initially committed to production of 20 bombers, but the 21st bomber, a prototype test model, was completed at a cost of nearly $500 million to bring the Block 30 to full operational status.
In 1995, Northrop submitted a proposal to the USAF to build 20 additional aircraft at a cost of $566 million each.
The program sparked a public debate over the cost to American taxpayers. In 1996, the General Accounting Office (GAO) reported that the USAF's B-2 bombers cost three times more than the B-1B, making them "the most expensive bombers to operate per aircraft". US$9.6 million per year) and four times that of the B-52H (US$6.8 million per year). In September 1997, the B-2 aircraft required 119 hours of maintenance per hour. Comparable maintenance requirements for the B-52 and B-1B are 53 and 60 hours per flight hour, respectively. The main reason for this cost was the large air-conditioned hangars for the bomber's 172-foot (52 m) wingspan, which were required to maintain the aircraft's stealth characteristics, particularly its "low-observation" stealth skins.
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In August 1995, a GAO report found that the B-2 had performance problems
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