B-2 Bomber Crash And Cost Facts Limit Active Stealth Jets To A Few, Northrop Grumman To Build Replacements In Florida
The first B-2 bomber rolled off the assembly line in 1988, built at Northrop Grumman’s complex in Palmdale under heavy security. This long range bomber can carry 20 tons of bombs but its unique wing design allows it to fly virtually undetected by radar. Unfortunately, due to the high B-2 bomber cost of $2 billion, the last of the B-2 stealth bombers was finished in 1997. But could a new plant based in Florida change all that?
In a related report by The Inquisitr, the next generation of US Navy ships represented by the USS Zumwalt will be led by Captain James Kirk. This humorous fact caused William Shatner to write to the real life Captain Kirk, who is probably sick of Star Trek jokes at this point in his life.
At $2 billion a pop, a B-2 bomber crash is quite devastating if only because of the financial concerns. In 2008, a moisture build up in the Spirit Of Kansas’ sensors array caused it to crash and burn. In 2010, an engine fire during a training mission in Guam caused the interior to be completely destroyed, and even parts of the frame were warped from the heat. In both cases the pilots escaped with their lives. The best part is that the military managed to recover the second destroyed B-2 bomber at a cost of $105 million, and the B-2 bomber, nicknamed Lazarus, returned home to the United States in March.
You would think that would leave 19 active jets, but every seven years the B-2 bomber fleet flies home for an overhaul that becomes quite expensive due to the rarity of the parts. Because of these costly B-2 bomber facts the official readiness rate is only 47 percent, which means that the US military probably only has around nine or 10 B-2 bombers available at any given moment. There’s also talk of Northrop Grumman creating 100 new Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B) as part of a new secret project, but the company won’t be submitting a proposal to the Pentagon until the end of 2014, which means this hypothetical replacement for the B-2 bomber won’t be ready until 2020 at the earliest.
The good news is that the B-2 bomber will be resurrected in Florida. A secret program called Project Magellan was recently revealed by Northrop Grumman, and it will create 1,800 jobs and a new $500 million facility in order to “expand its work on aircraft design and engineering.” Although the company did not officially release what they were planning, Florida Senator Bill Nelson claims they will be building more B-2 stealth bombers:
“This is huge. The development and assembly of America’s long range strike aircraft in Melbourne is a new beginning for the Space Coast.”
So far, there has not been any discussion of what the new B-2 bomber cost will be, and whether or not this changes their plans for the Long-Range Strike Bomber program. The facility is planned to be running at full capacity by 2020.
