B2 Spirit, 1B each, the World's first "long arm", strategic stealth bomber

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a multi-role stealth heavy bomber, capable of deploying both conventional and nuclear weapons. It is operated exclusively by the United States Air Force. Its development was a milestone in the modernization program of the U.S. Department of Defense. The B-2's stealth technology is intended to aid the aircraft's penetration role in order to survive extremely dense anti-aircraft defenses otherwise considered impenetrable by combat aircraft.



The B-2 has seen service in three separate campaigns. Its debut was during the Kosovo War in 1999. The B-2 first introduced the satellite guided JDAM in combat use. Since then, the aircraft has operated over Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the Iraq campaign, B-2s were temporarily operated from Diego Garcia. Later missions to Iraq launched from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. This resulted in missions lasting over 30 hours and one mission of over 50 hours.

The Pentagon's Operational Test and Evaluation 2003 Annual Report noted that the B-2's serviceability for FY03 was still inadequate, mainly due to maintenance on the B-2's Low Observable materials. The evaluation also noted that the Defensive Avionics suite also had shortcomings with pop-up threats.[8] Despite these problems the B-2 reached full operational capability in December 2003.[4] The B-2 maintained high mission capable rates for Operation Iraqi Freedom, dropping 583 JDAMs during the campaign.