I've always been fascinated with military aircraft, from the P51 Mustang to the F15 Strike Eagle to the B1B Bomber, these aircraft are awe inspiring!

I've seen the B1B in flight, I even have a friend who was a B1B pilot. She is the real deal.

The B1B is a nuclear deterrent like no other, an incredible engineering marvel... but it doesn't come close to the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit in terms of versatility or firepower.

We currently have 19 B2 Spirit bombers in operation, at an average cost of over $2B each!

From Wikipedia:
General characteristics
Crew: 2: pilot (left seat) and mission commander (right seat)
Length: 69 ft 0 in
Wingspan: 172 ft 0 in
Height: 17 ft 0 in
Wing area: 5,140 sq ft
Empty weight: 158,000 lb
Gross weight: 336,500 lb
Max takeoff weight: 376,000 lb
Fuel capacity: 167,000 pounds
Powerplant: 4 × General Electric F118-GE-100 non-afterburning turbofans

Performance
Maximum speed: 630 mph (550 kn) at 40,000 ft altitude / Mach 0.95 at sea level
Cruise speed: 560 mph (487 kn) at 40,000 ft altitude
Range: 6,900 mi (6,000 nmi)
Service ceiling: 50,000 ft
Wing loading: 67.3 lb/sq ft
Thrust/weight: 0.205

Armament
2 internal bays for ordnance and payload with an official limit of 40,000 lb; maximum estimated limit is 50,000 lb.

Ordnance options carried include:
80× 500 lb class bombs (Mk-82, GBU-38) mounted on Bomb Rack Assembly (BRA)
36× 750 lb CBU class bombs on BRA
16× 2,000 lb class bombs (Mk-84, GBU-31) mounted on Rotary Launcher Assembly (RLA)
16× B61 or B83 nuclear bombs on RLA (strategic mission)

Standoff weapon: AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) and AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)
2× GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator

The original order was for 138, but only 21 were built... for obvious reasons. Very cool tech. We have some amazing hardware working in our defense.

I saw that, I wonder if that was ever a real number or if that was just a way of justifying the R&D? I can't imagine we need 138 of them... sounds like 19 is probably overkill!

Here's a cool cockpit video https://www.slashgear.com/1881522/b2-bo ... r-cockpit/

As was demonstrated by Ukraine recently, you can eliminate a fleet of $2B bombers for about $20K in drones. An enemy could take out the entire fleet in an afternoon. The hangars they are in are pretty obvious at Whiteman.

The most vulnerable time for the planes is sitting on the ground.

Concentrating our fire power in so few things is a risky position. The value of the B2 is a deterrent, but it won't be that useful in an actual war due to its vulnerabilities and small fleet size.

The future of warfare is small disposable drones. Such systems defeat $billion weapon systems on the cheap.

Mike C.

At the time they literally cost more than their weight in gold.

B-1s stopped carrying portable suns in 95 as part of the START 1 treaty. I think all the wiring for them is gone now.

As was demonstrated by Ukraine recently, you can eliminate a fleet of $2B bombers for about $20K in drones. An enemy could take out the entire fleet in an afternoon. The hangars they are in are pretty obvious at Whiteman.

The most vulnerable time for the planes is sitting on the ground.

Concentrating our fire power in so few things is a risky position. The value of the B2 is a deterrent, but it won't be that useful in an actual war due to its vulnerabilities and small fleet size.

The future of warfare is small disposable drones. Such systems defeat $billion weapon systems on the cheap.

Mike C.

Which it has demonstrated already! And it has a successor with more capabilities.

I'd not be too sure of that. An innocuous conex container at a truck depot a dozen miles away and the top pops off and a drone swarm emerges. This is very much on the forefront of defensive thought these days and they don't have to even hit the B-2. Hit the hangar and the door can't open, scatter cluster munitions or mines on the apron, hit the electrical infrastructure of the base.

The good news is this type of attack was being thought about (at least where I worked) perhaps 15 years ago so defensive countermeasures are out there and growing. Not perfect but we can no longer rely on our oceans as a fortress wall.

You lack imagination. If you want real world, everyone is referencing the Ukraine thing, go look it up. The drones that hit the Russians didn’t launch from Ukrainian soil.

I don't think we need worry that any enemy is going to launch drones to strike deep inside the continental United States!

That's the beauty of a long range bomber like the B2, it need not be in theater, you can launch it from Missouri, fly it half way around the world, unleash massive destruction and then fly home.

The first time I saw the B2 in person. Oh my!!!

We were camped at Sun n Fun. c. 1997 I was standing at the approach end of Rwy. 10 watching airplanes. It was late afternoon, and the sky was a beautiful golden blue with few clouds. It was an unusually low humidity day, and temps were in the upper 70s.

A P 51 did a 360 overhead break and landed, and that had my attention, watching him roll out and turn off the runway.

All of a sudden, someone behind me yelled out. "LOOK!!!"

I turned around, and on a half mile final was a B2. Silently, it approached, about five hundred feet over my head, I finally heard a soft whoosh, as it flew by.

At the end of the runway, it pulled up, and turned Northbound.

It was so surreal, and almost spooky, the way it snuck up on us all. Just a testament to it's 'Stealth'.

Years ago 1999 or 2000, not sure. I flew right over Whiteman AF base. There were 3 B2s sitting on the tarmac and I could see others in their hangars. I was ifr in cavu conditions I couldn’t believe they vectored me right over the place talking to their tower. I was expecting an intercept or missile at any moment. Just one of those memories we get from flying. Yeah I got a picture but I can’t find it!

High altitude balloons as drone motherships? Naaah. That’s a stoopid idea …

I was surprised that ATC let me get close to a B-2 landing at Whiteman.

[quote="Doug Ranz"]High altitude balloons as drone motherships? Naaah. That’s a stoopid idea …

There are plenty of opportunities for someone to try Pearl Harbor V2.0. But our assets are very widely distributed. So think twice because if you want to take a swing at the <figurative> king, you'd better put him away with the first swing.