JULY/AUGUST 2019 AIRFORCEMAG.COM 31
T
his is America’s
best-known secret
weapon. The B-2 Spirit
is easily the most recognizable air-
craft in the Air Force inventory, its sleek,
black, improbable shape blending science fiction
with reality even now, 30 years after its first flight.
When America goes to war, the B-2 is usually the
opening act. Flying imperceptibly through enemy air
defenses, its opening night missions destroy enemy
air defenses so follow-on forces can destroy the ene-
my’s ability and will to fight. The B-2 doesn’t just kick
open doors; it opens the skies.
Only 21 B-2s were built, and just 20 remain. They
comprise a tailor-made fleet of handcrafted aircraft,
each ever-so-slightly different from the next, each
able to carry a flexible arsenal of firepower in a two-
man aircraft capable of flying unnoticed halfway
around the world. One B-2 can strike 43 percent more
long-range targets than an entire Arleigh Burke-class
Navy destroyer.
Today’s B-2s are not the same airplanes that first
attracted attention in the 1990s. These jets feature en-
hanced targeting and threat-identification systems,
precision weapons, improved stealth, and the capac-
ity to deliver the biggest bombs in the US arsenal.
The Air Force’s Bomber Vector calls for retiring the
B-2 fleet by 2032, well before its successor, the B-21,
THE
SPIRIT
TURNS
Photo: USAF
is fully on line.
The B-21, which is
still in development, will be sim-
ilar in shape and design to the B-2, but
only about two-thirds the size. B-21 deliveries are
targeted to start in the mid-2020s, and under current
plans, B-2s would be retired as those new aircraft join
the operational fleet.
But plans change. Within months after the Bomber
Vector was released, the Air Force unveiled “The Air
Force We Need,” a plan to grow the force from 312 to
386 operational squadrons. Now,ß Chief of Staff Gen.
David L. Goldfein is leaving the door open to extend
the B-2’s operational career.
“It’s still in the works in terms of how we look at
the force,” Goldfein said June 26. The 386-squadron
plan is built to deter and, if necessary, fight and win
against a nuclear peer, he said. The B-2 delivers val-
ue to that equation. “Whether we retire the B-2 in the
time frame with the B-21, all of that has to be nested”
in the build-out of that 386-squadron force, where the
greatest growth is in long-range bombers and tank-
ers. “That should not be surprising or lost on anyone,”
he said. “Because as we see the advancing threat, and
the missions the Air Force provides, having that in-
creased range to execute our missions becomes even
more essential in the future.”
—Tobias Naegele
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