B-2 SpiritFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

A USAF B-2 Spirit in flight.

Type Stealth bomber

Manufacturer Northrop Grumman

Maiden flight 1989-07-17

Introduced April 1997

Status Active service

Primary user United States Air Force

Number built 21

Unit cost US$1.157-$2.2 billion in 1998

The B-2 Spirit, made by Northrop Grumman, is an American multi-role stealth bomber able to dropconventional and nuclear weapons. The bomber was a milestone in the United States' bombermodernization program. The B-2 is the most expensive plane ever built. Estimates for the costs per planerange from US$1.157 billion USD [1] to $2.2 billion [2]. Its stealth technology is intended to help itpenetrate defenses previously impenetrable by combat aircraft. The original procurement of 135 aircraftwas later reduced to 75 in the late 1980s. Finally, President George H. W. Bush reduced the final buyquantity to the 21 already bought in his now famous "New World Order" State of the Union speech,January 1991.

Features

This B-2 has just disengaged from aerial refueling over the Pacific Ocean. Inflight refueling capability gives the B-2 a range limited only byengine lubrication and crew endurance.

With the B-52 Stratofortress and B-1B, the U.S. military claims that the B-2 provides the versatilityinherent in manned bombers. Its low-observable, or "stealth," characteristics give it the ability topenetrate an enemy's most sophisticated defenses and attack its most heavily defended targets. Thisshould make it useful well into the 21st century.

The revolutionary blending of low-observable technologies with high aerodynamic efficiency and largepayload gives the B-2 important advantages over previous bombers. Its traveling range is approximately6,000 nautical miles (11,100 km) without refueling. Also, its low-observation ability provides the B-2greater freedom of action at high altitudes, thus increasing its range and a better field of view for theaircraft's sensors. With its GPS Aided Targeting System (GATS) combined with GPS-aided bombs suchas Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), it can use its APQ-181 radar to correct GPS errors of targetsand gain much better than laser-guided weapon accuracy with "dumb" gravity bombs with a GPS-aided"smart" guidance tail kit attached. It can bomb 16 targets in a single pass.

The B-2's stealth comes from a combination of reduced infrared, acoustic, electromagnetic, visual andradar signatures, making it difficult for defences to detect, track and engage. Many aspects of the low-observability process remain classified; however, the B-2's composite materials, special coatings andflying wing design contribute to its stealth abilities

The B-2 has a crew of two pilots, a pilot in the left seat and mission commander in the right, comparedto the B-1B's crew of four and the B-52's crew of five.

Operational history

The B-2 started life as a "black project" known as the High Altitude Penetrating Bomber (HAPB), thenbecame the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) and used the project code word Senior Cejay. It laterbecame the B-2 Spirit. An estimated 23 billion dollars was secretly spent for research and developmenton the B-2 in the 1980s. An additional expense was caused by changing its role in 1985 from a high-altitude bomber to a low-altitude bomber, which required a major redesign. Because the development ofthe B-2 was one of the best kept secrets of all USAF programs, there was no opportunity for publiccriticism of its massive cost during development. The first B-2 was publicly displayed on November 22,1988, when it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, where it was built.Its first flight was on July 17, 1989. The B-2 Combined Test Force, Air Force Flight Test Center,Edwards Air Force Base, California, is responsible for flight testing the engineering, manufacturing anddevelopment aircraft.

The first aircraft, named Spirit of Missouri, was delivered on December 17, 1993. Depot maintenanceresponsibility for the B-2 is held by Air Force contractor support and is managed at the Oklahoma CityAir Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

The prime contractor, responsible for overall system design and integration, is Northrop GrummanIntegrated Systems Sector. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon),General Electric Aircraft Engines and Vought Aircraft Industries, are members of the aircraft contractorteam. Another contractor, responsible for aircrew training devices (weapon system trainer and missiontrainer) is Link Simulation & Training, a division of L-3 Communications formerly Hughes TrainingInc. (HTI). Link Division, formerly known as CAE - Link Flight Simulation Corp. Link Simulation &Training is responsible for developing and integrating all aircrew and maintenance training programs.The military contractors for the B-2 engaged in massive lobbying campaigns to gain Congressionalsupport for its funding.

Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri was the B-2's operational base until early 2003, when facilitiesfor the B-2 were built on the joint U.S./U.K. military base on the British island of Diego Garcia in theIndian Ocean, followed by deployment to Guam in 2005. Facilities for the aircraft have also been builtat RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom.

Questions remain over the rising cost of the program. Some writers have suggested that the huge costmay include costs for other black projects. The expense may also be partially explained by the smallnumber of planes produced coupled with a large research overhead in the B-2 program.

These bombers were originally designed to drop nuclear weapons during the Cold War and support forthem dwindled as military spending declined. In May of 1995, in a study commissioned by Congress,the Institute For Defense Analysis concluded that after the demise of the Soviet Union, there was noneed for more B-2s.

Combat

This Spirit was photographed in 2004 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

The B-2 was derided by many as being too expensive to risk in combat. However, the aircraft has seenservice in three separate campaigns.

Its debut was during the Kosovo War in 1999. The aircraft performed well and it introduced the satelliteguided JDAM bomb to the world. Since then the aircraft has operated over Afghanistan in OperationEnduring Freedom and Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The raids on Afghanistan saw a first for the aircraft. After flying bombing missions over Afghanistan,the aircraft landed at Diego Garcia, were refueled and had a crew change before another sortie. This wastaken a step further during the Iraq campaign when B-2s were based at Diego Garcia.

Later missions to Iraq came from Whiteman AFB in Missouri. This resulted in missions lasting over 30hours and one mission of over 50 hours. B-2 crews have been used to pioneer sleep cycle research toimprove crew performance on long flights.

The Pentagon's Operational Test and Evaluation 2003 Annual Report noted that the B-2's serviceabilityfor FY03 was still inadequate, mainly due to maintenance on the B-2's Low Observable materials. It alsonoted that the Defensive Avionics suite also had shortcomings in warning of pop-up threats. Despitethese problems the B-2 maintained high serviceability for Operation Iraqi Freedom, dropping 583JDAMs during the war.

B-2 on Display

B-2 Spirit display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

Because of their cost it is unlikely any B-2 will be placed on display in the near future. In 2004 the statictest mock-up for the B-2 was placed on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Forcenear Dayton, Ohio. The mock-up had been used for structural testing, and at one point was tested to thepoint of destruction. The Museum's restoration team spent over a year reassembling the fracturedairframe, and patches can clearly be seen on the exterior of the airframe when fractured sections werereattached. If this mock-up is eventually replaced with an actual B-2 it will likely represent the world'smost expensive exhibit item.

Units using the B-2

United States Air Force

509th Bomb Wing, Whiteman Air Force Baseo 13th Bomb Squadrono 393d Bomb Squadrono 394th Combat Training Squadron

53d Wing, Eglin Air Force Baseo 72d Test and Evaluation Squadron, Whiteman Air Force Base

57th Wing, Nellis Air Force Baseo 325th Weapons Squadron, Whiteman Air Force Baseo 715th Weapons Squadron inactivated

Trivia

Weighing 71,668 kg, each B-2 costs over $30/g which is just under double itsvalue in gold.

Most B-2s are named for states in the US, following the naming convention"Spirit of [state]." The two exceptions are "Spirit of America" (AV-1) and "Spiritof Kitty Hawk" (AV-19).

The B-2, akin to the F-117, relies on very low observability and signature. Thiscondition is compromised if the aircraft is flown in wet conditions. The skin ofthe aircraft is also very fragile and requires constant maintenance to preserve itsminimal signature.

For reasons not yet de-classified, the B-2 charges its leading edge to a very highelectrical potential difference from its exhaust stream. It has been suggested (byJane's Defence) that it augments the B-2's low thrust main engines. It is also awell known phenomenon that an ionised gas (plasma) will scatter a radar beam farmore effectively than a solid surface of any conceivable shape. This could be thepurpose of the high voltage leading edge. Another possibility is that it is for thepurpose of reducing drag, since the leading edge of the B-2 might then movethrough a partial vacuum of ionised air which may be ionised and repelled by thehigh voltage. In any case, it is however true that Northrop engineers conductedwind tunnel tests using high voltage on a testbed wing leading edge to reducesupersonic drag as far back as 1968. These tests were with a view to breaking upthe airflow ahead of the wing using electrical forces in order to soften a sonicboom. How this applies (if indeed it does at all) to the B-2 after an interval ofmany years is uncertain. The B-2 is (officially) a subsonic vehicle, so there wouldappear to be no immediate link, however tantalising the connection. Thoughintriguing, the true nature of this feature will probably not be known to the publicfor some very considerable time.

Specifications (B-2A block 30)

General characteristics

Crew: 2 Length: 69 ft (20.9 m) Wingspan: 172 ft (52.12 m) Height: 17 ft (5.1 m) Wing area: 5,000 ft² (460 m²) Empty weight: 158,000 lb (71,700 kg) Loaded weight: 336,500 lb (152,600 kg) Max takeoff weight: 376,000 lb (171,000 kg) Powerplant: 4× General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans, 17,300 lbf (77 kN)

each

Performance

Maximum speed: 410 knots (475 mph, 764 km/h) Range: 6,500 mi (5,600 nm, 12,000 km) Service ceiling: 50,000 ft (15,000 m) Wing loading: 67.3 lb/ft² (329 kg/m²) Thrust/weight: 0.205

Armament

40,000 lb (18,000 kg) of Bomb Rack Assembly mounted 500 lb class bombs(Mk82) (total carriage quantity: 80)

27,000 lb (12,000 kg) of BRA mounted 750 lb CBU class bombs (total carriagequantity: 36)

16 Rotary Launcher Assembly (RLA) mounted 2000 lb class weapons (Mk84,JDAM-84, JDAM-102)

16 RLA mounted B61 or B83 nuclear weapons

Later avionics and equipment improvements allow B-2A to carry JSOW and GBU-28s aswell.

List of B-2 Bombers

Designation Tail # Formal name Informal namesAV-1 82-1066 Spirit of America Fatal BeautyAV-2 82-1067 Spirit of Arizona Ship From Hell, Murphy's LawAV-3 82-1068 Spirit of New York Navigator, Ghost, Afternoon DelightAV-4 82-1069 Spirit of Indiana Christine, Armageddon ExpressAV-5 82-1070 Spirit of Ohio Fire and Ice, Toad

AV-6 82-1071 Spirit of Mississippi Black Widow, Penguin, Arnold thePig

AV-7 88-0328 Spirit of Texas Pirate ShipAV-8 88-0329 Spirit of MissouriAV-9 88-0330 Spirit of California

AV-10 88-0331 Spirit of SouthCarolina

AV-11 88-0332 Spirit of WashingtonAV-12 89-0127 Spirit of KansasAV-13 89-0128 Spirit of NebraskaAV-14 89-0129 Spirit of Georgia The Dark AngelAV-15 90-0040 Spirit of AlaskaAV-16 90-0041 Spirit of HawaiiAV-17 92-0700 Spirit of FloridaAV-18 93-1085 Spirit of Oklahoma Spirit of San FranciscoAV-19 93-1086 Spirit of Kitty HawkAV-20 93-1087 Spirit of Pennsylvania Penny the PigAV-21 93-1088 Spirit of LouisianaAV-22 – AV-165

canceled