{"id":1487,"date":"2026-10-06T08:44:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/aircraft\/northrop-grumman-b-2-spirit\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T07:01:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T07:01:36","slug":"northrop-grumman-b-2-spirit","status":"publish","type":"aircraft","link":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/aircraft\/northrop-grumman-b-2-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Northrop B-2 Spirit<\/strong> is an American nuclear-capable<\/a> subsonic<\/a> stealth<\/a> strategic bomber<\/a>, often referred to as a “stealth bomber”,[A]<\/a><\/sup> solely operated by the United States Air Force<\/a>.[5]<\/a><\/sup> A four-engined<\/a> flying wing<\/a> and lambda wing<\/a> with a crew of two to three, it is designed with stealth technology<\/a> to penetrate<\/a> sophisticated air defenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The B-2 was designed by Northrop<\/a> (later Northrop Grumman<\/a>) as the prime contractor, with Boeing<\/a>, Hughes Aircraft Company<\/a>, and Vought<\/a> as principal subcontractors. It was produced from 1988 to 2000.[6]<\/a><\/sup>[1]<\/a><\/sup>[7]<\/a><\/sup> The bomber can drop conventional<\/a> and thermonuclear weapons<\/a>,[8]<\/a><\/sup> such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82<\/a> JDAM<\/a> GPS<\/a>-guided bombs, or sixteen 400 kiloton<\/a> B61 nuclear bombs<\/a>.[9]<\/a><\/sup> The B-2 is the only acknowledged in-service aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface<\/a> standoff weapons<\/a> in a stealth configuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development began in 1979, as the Advanced Technology Bomber<\/a> (ATB) black project<\/a> during the Carter administration<\/a>. Its promises contributed to cancelling the Mach 2-capable B-1A bomber<\/a>, but development difficulties delayed progress and drove up costs. By 1996, the program produced 21 B-2s at a total cost of $44.7 billion (equivalent to $91.76 billion in 2025) or average cost of $2.13 billion (equivalent to $4.37 billion in 2025) per aircraft, including procurement<\/a>, development, testing, and production.[10]<\/a><\/sup> The megaproject<\/a>‘s considerable capital<\/a> and operating costs<\/a> made it controversial in the U.S. Congress<\/a>, even before the end of the Cold War<\/a> dramatically reduced the desire for a stealth aircraft to strike deep inside the Soviet Union<\/a>; by the 1990s lawmakers shrank the planned purchase of 132 bombers to 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The B-2 has an estimated flight ceiling<\/a> of 50,000 feet (15 km), an unrefueled range of more than 6,900 miles (11,000 km) and can fly more than 12,000 miles (19,000 km) with one midair refueling<\/a>. It entered service in 1997, considered the second stealth aircraft, after the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk<\/a>. Primarily designed as a nuclear bomber, the B-2 was first used in combat to drop conventional ordnance<\/a> in the Kosovo War<\/a> in 1999. It was later used in Iraq<\/a>, Afghanistan<\/a>, Libya<\/a>, Yemen<\/a>, the 2025 strikes on Iran<\/a> and the 2026 Iran war<\/a>.[8]<\/a><\/sup>[11]<\/a><\/sup>[12]<\/a><\/sup> Based out of Whiteman AFB<\/a>, Missouri, climate-controlled hangars have allowed the B-2 to forward deploy<\/a> to NSF Diego Garcia<\/a> in the Indian Ocean, Andersen AFB<\/a> on Guam in the Pacific, and RAF Fairford<\/a> in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States Air Force has nineteen B-2s in service as of 2024.[13]<\/a><\/sup> Another was destroyed in a 2008 crash<\/a>,[14]<\/a><\/sup>[15]<\/a><\/sup> and one was likely retired from service after being damaged in a crash in 2022.[13]<\/a><\/sup> The Air Force plans to operate the B-2s until 2032, as they are incrementally replaced by the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Northrop B-2 Spirit is an American nuclear-capable subsonic stealth strategic bomber, often referred to as a “stealth bomber”,[A] solely operated by the United States Air Force.[5] A four-engined flying wing and lambda wing with a crew of two to three, it is designed with stealth technology to penetrate sophisticated air defenses. The B-2 was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4953,"template":"","meta":{"_acdb_brands_pos":"bottom","_acdb_special_pos":"after_links","footnotes":""},"aircraft_manufacturer":[305],"aircraft_category":[6,7],"aircraft_country":[54],"class_list":["post-1487","aircraft","type-aircraft","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","aircraft_manufacturer-northrop-grumman","aircraft_category-aircraft","aircraft_category-bombers","aircraft_country-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/aircraft"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4951,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft\/1487\/revisions\/4951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"aircraft_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft_manufacturer?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"aircraft_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft_category?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"aircraft_country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jfmwebsie.xyz\/my_website2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aircraft_country?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}