Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

B-2 Spirit
A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit flying over the Pacific Ocean in 2016
Role	Stealth strategic heavy bomber Type of aircraft
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Northrop Corporation Northrop Grumman
First flight	17 July 1989; 34 years ago (1989-07-17)
Introduction	1 January 1997
Status	In service
Primary user	United States Air Force
Produced	1987–2000
Number built	21[1][2]

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying wing with a crew of two, the plane was designed by Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) and produced from 1987 to 2000.^[1][3] The bomber can drop conventional and thermonuclear weapons,^[4] such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400-pound (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only acknowledged in-service aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

Development began under the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) project during the Carter administration, which cancelled the Mach 2-capable B-1A bomber in part because the ATB showed such promise. But development difficulties delayed progress and drove up costs. Ultimately, the program produced 21 B-2s at an average cost of $2.13 billion (~$4.04 billion in 2023), including development, engineering, testing, production, and procurement.^[5] Building each aircraft cost an average of US$737 million,^[5] while total procurement costs (including production, spare parts, equipment, retrofitting, and software support) averaged $929 million (~$1.11 billion in 2023) per plane.^[5]

The project's considerable capital and operating costs made it controversial in the U.S. Congress even before the winding down of the Cold War dramatically reduced the desire for a stealth aircraft designed to strike deep in Soviet territory. Consequently, in the late 1980s and 1990s lawmakers shrank the planned purchase of 132 bombers to 21.

As of 2015, twenty B-2s were in service with the United States Air Force,^[4] one having been destroyed in a 2008 crash.^[6] The Air Force plans to operate them until 2032, when the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is to replace them.^[7]

The B-2 can perform attack missions at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet (15,000 m); it has an unrefueled range of more than 6,000 nautical miles (6,900 mi; 11,000 km) and can fly more than 10,000 nautical miles (12,000 mi; 19,000 km) with one midair refueling. It entered service in 1997 as the second aircraft designed with advanced stealth technology, after the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk attack aircraft. Primarily designed as a nuclear bomber, the B-2 was first used in combat to drop conventional, non-nuclear ordnance in the Kosovo War in 1999. It was later used in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.^[8]