B-2 Spirit: The most expensive Military Aircraft in the world
Long-range bombers have been in demand since before World War II. During the Cold War, other superpowers, including the United States and the Soviet Union, began building such advanced aircraft. Following this, the US Air Force formed the ‘ Global Strike Squadron. ‘ This means that the main force of this fleet is the aircraft capable of carrying out airstrikes from the United States to any part of the world. The speed of the famous B-52 bomber of the Cold War era was low. Again, the radar cross-section (RCS) was too large to detect on advanced Soviet radar easily. As a result, the US Air Force felt the need for a stealth bomber. The United States has been experimenting with building stealth warplanes capable of evading radar since the 1970s. We are talking about the most expensive military aircraft in the world name B-2 Spirit.
ATB program
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ), a US defense research organization, spearheads most government-advanced technology projects. In 1984, the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) project called for the concept of a large RCS aircraft to be invisible on radar, with project partners involving various aircraft manufacturers. Note that US military projects are based on ‘open tender.’ The US government buys the company whose weapons will be the best and the best. Companies such as Northrop, Lockheed, and McDonnell-Douglas responded to DARPA’s call.
Among them, Lockheed was at the forefront of building the world’s fastest aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird. These two aircraft are somewhat stealthy but not enough to meet the needs of DARPA. Lockheed later built the F-118 Nighthawk reconnaissance aircraft. It is the world’s first effective stealth aircraft. But it was built for intelligence missions .). However, the Ministry of Defense was not entirely satisfied with Knighthawk’s small attack capability. The Northrop Company tested a highly classified aircraft in Area 51 in 1979. This was the flying concept of the B-2 stealth bomber. The B-2 was built in 1987 and flew for the first time in 1989. Since then, the project has cost 23 billion due to several design changes and various updates. However, the level of cost is just the beginning.
When you see the cost level of B-2, your eyes will go up to your forehead. As of 1998, the cost of building each aircraft was 737 million. This is the actual price of the aircraft. However, the US Air Force bought each aircraft, including spare parts and equipment, for 929 million. Each time returning from a mission, the B-2 takes about 119 hours to prepare for flight again. The reason for taking so much time is regular maintenance and stealth coating, which has been mentioned in detail in the previous article on stealth aircraft.
The average cost per flight per aircraft is 1.35 lakh. It has to be kept in a fully air-conditioned hangar room at the cost of about 5 million. Outside of that, maintenance alone costs 3.4 million a year for each aircraft. For all these reasons, the cost of research and development, including the cost of upgrades, has so far cost 2.2 billion behind each B-2! For this reason, B-2 has been named the most expensive aircraft globally by combining military and civilian. So let’s find out the capabilities of B-2.
The B-2 Spirit is a long-range strategic bomber. It was designed to penetrate deep into enemy territory and conduct bombings to inflict maximum damage. The plane needs two pilots to fly. It has some unique features as it takes a long time to fly in the sky. An autopilot system allows one person to sit in the cockpit and another to sleep in the back corridor as needed! However, both of them have to be in the cockpit while taking oil in the middle of the sky.
Due to the stealth facility of the aircraft, the enemy can penetrate deep into the area by evading the radar and launching an attack. It can fly at an altitude of 50,000 feet (15 km) which makes it more difficult for radar to detect. The B-2 can operate at a maximum speed of 11,010 km / h (6,900 miles) with a maximum speed of 1,010 km / h with 75,650 liters of fuel in its two internal fuel tanks. However, once the tanker takes fuel from the aircraft in mid-air, the range will increase to 19,000 kilometers. As a result, it is possible to go to any part of the world with more than one fuel and return to the United States. That’s why the B-2 Spirit is undoubtedly the best bomber in the world.
Ability
It can carry 18-23 tons of different types of bombs. The most expensive aircraft B-2 Spirit has two internal weapon bays. The aircraft hides its weapons inside the abdomen instead of the wings to keep stealth capability. It can carry a total of 80 bombs, including the 500-pound Mk-82 and GBU-38. Or CBU class bombs weighing up to 36 650 pounds in different configurations. If you want a more powerful bomb, a 2,000-pound Mk-84 or GBU-31 bomb can carry a total of 16. All these are the main weapons of the most expensive aircraft B-2 Spirit.
The laser-guided system came to improve the unguided bombs, which were very perfect but did not work day and night in all kinds of weather. LATER, the US Navy and Air Force developed a Direct 25,000 GPS guidance kit called the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). It can turn the above 500-2,000 pounds of unguided bombs into perfect smart bombs like missiles. Training shows that if the JDAM bombs miss the target, their GPS coordinates are only about 7 meters away! Because of this, you will notice that most of the US airstrikes in the ongoing wars are very perfect.
But sometimes, the enemy’s protected bunkers are so deep that a 2,000-pound bomb cannot destroy them. That’s why the B-2 Spirit the most expensive military aircraft in the world Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MoP) carries a total of two special GBU-57 bombs weighing 30,000 pounds! The Bunker Blaster class bomb uses 5,300 pounds of explosives capable of completely destroying a concrete bunker 200 feet below the ground!