B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber

Efran Syah       Bomber Aircraft    Comment   

The Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low observable stealth technology designed for penetrating dense anti-aircraft defenses; it is a flying wing design with a crew of two.

B-2A Spirit. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III)

The first B-2 was publicly displayed on Nov. 22, 1988, when it was rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California. Its first flight was July 17, 1989. 

A product of the Cold War, it was originally designed to penetrate Soviet air defenses and carry both conventional and nuclear weapons. But shortly after its first flight, over 30 years ago in 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall ended the Cold War and no B-2 has ever flown inside Russian airspace.

(Northrop Grumman)

The B-52 first introduced the idea of flying a bomber at very high altitudes, to make it harder for anti-aircraft missiles to reach it, while the B-1 tried the opposite: flying so low and fast that radar would have trouble picking it up.

Neither strategy was perfect nor immune to enemy fire, and Cold War tensions were calling for the ultimate nuclear deterrent: a bomber capable of carrying atomic weapons while being virtually undetectable by enemy air defenses.

A B-2 Spirit (Spirit of Missouri) at the Dyess AFB air show 2018. (Balon Greyjoy)

The B-2 is 69 feet long, 17 feet high and has a wingspan of 172 feet, half the length of a football field. The B-2 can reach a high subsonic speed and can also reach an altitude of more 50,000 feet.

The B-2 Spirit, Spirit of Oklahoma, is silhouetted against the sky during the Thunder Over The Boardwalk Air Show, Atlantic City, N.J., Aug. 23, 2006. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Mark C. Olsen/Released)

The aircraft carries all its weapons internally and is fitted with two separate weapons bays in the centre of the aircraft. The B-2 stealth bomber has the capacity to carry up to 40,000lb of weapons, including conventional and nuclear weapons, precision-guided munitions, gravity bombs and a range of maritime weapons.

(Jonathan Cutrer)

The bomber can deploy both conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM Global Positioning System-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400-pound (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only acknowledged aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit "Stealth" bomber flies over the Pacific Ocean after a recent aerial refueling mission, May 2, 2005. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo)

The aircraft is powered by four General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofan engines internally mounted in the body of the wings.

The engines have an exhaust temperature control system to minimise thermal signature.

The engines, rated at 77kN, provide a high subsonic speed and a maximum gross take-off weight of 336,500lb. In-flight refuelling gear is installed in the top centre line of the aircraft behind the cockpit.

(Northrop Grumman)

The B-2 is capable of all-altitude attack missions up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m), with a range of more than 6,000 nautical miles (6,900 mi; 11,000 km) on internal fuel and over 10,000 nautical miles (12,000 mi; 19,000 km) with one midair refueling.

A KC-135 Stratotanker refuels a B-2 Spirit over the Pacific Ocean May 12 near Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, 12 May 2009. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Christopher Bush)

With its "flying wing" design that makes it almost invisible to radar, the B-2 Spirit bomber is truly a standout among military planes -- and also the world's most expensive, at over $2 billion per aircraft.

The B-2 is one of three strategic bombers currently in service in the US Air Force, along with the agile Rockwell B-1 Lancer, which first flew in 1974, and the gargantuan Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, a legendary aircraft from the 1950s that has been constantly updated ever since.

(Creative Commons)

   

The B-2 holds the record for longest air combat mission in history. In 2001, the Spirit of America and five other B-2s were the first to enter Afghan airspace for a record setting 44-hour mission. The aircraft’s performance is even more impressive in that the B-2 made a quick pit stop for a 45-minute crew and service change with engines still running. It then flew back to Missouri for another 30-hour flight for a total of more than 70 consecutive hours.

Andersen Air Force Base, Guam - A B-2 Spirit bomber takes off for a mission during an air and space expeditionary force deployment here. Bomber aircraft have had an ongoing presence on the island since February 2004. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Val Gempis)

Specifications (B-2A Block 30)

General characteristics

• Crew: 2: pilot (left seat) and mission commander (right seat)
• Length: 21.0 m
• Wingspan: 52.4 m
• Height: 5.18 m
• Empty weight: 71.700 kg
• Gross weight: 152.200 kg
• Max takeoff weight: 170.600 kg
• Fuel capacity: 75.750 kg
• Powerplant: 4 × General Electric F118-GE-100 non-afterburning turbofans, 17,300 lbf (77 kN) thrust each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 630 mph (1,010 km/h, 550 kn) at 40,000 ft altitude / Mach 0.95 at sea level
• Cruise speed: 560 mph (900 km/h, 487 kn) at 40,000 ft altitude
• Range: 6,900 mi (11,000 km, 6,000 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 15,200 m
• Wing loading: 329 kg/m2

Armament

2 internal bays for ordnance and payload with an official limit of 18.000 kg; maximum estimated limit is 23,000 kg.

• 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 Ordinance Penetrator