{"id":55636,"date":"2024-04-25T23:02:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T21:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=55636"},"modified":"2025-04-25T01:19:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T23:19:28","slug":"the-massive-takeoff-of-more-than-half-of-the-united-states-b-2-spirit-stealth-bombers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/04\/25\/the-massive-takeoff-of-more-than-half-of-the-united-states-b-2-spirit-stealth-bombers\/","title":{"rendered":"The massive takeoff of more than half of the United States B-2 Spirit stealth bombers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The world is experiencing a second Cold War and, as in the first, strategic bomber fleets are a very important asset.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/02\/16\/the-impressive-low-approach-of-a-b-2-spirit-with-landing-gear-problems\/\">The impressive low approach of a B-2 Spirit with landing gear problems<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/12\/03\/the-usaf-shows-more-photos-of-the-b-21-raider-and-talks-about-a-future-without-b-1b-nor-b-2\/\">The USAF shows more photos of the B-21 Raider and talks about a future without B-1B nor B-2<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Waiting for the entry into service of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2022\/12\/03\/b-21-raider-the-presentation-of-the-new-american-strategic-stealth-bomber\/\">the new B-21 Raider<\/a>, <strong>currently the US Air Force (USAF) has three types of strategic bombers with nuclear capabilities:<\/strong> the old but still effective ones Boeing <strong>B-52 Stratofortress<\/strong>, the Rockwell <strong>B-1B Lancer<\/strong> (the only US supersonic strategic bomber) and the Northrop Grumman <strong>B-2 Spirit, the only ones with stealth capability<\/strong>, that is, they have a very low radar signature that allows them to fly over enemy territory practically unnoticed.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53679116345_a42b33c45b_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The USAF has 20 active B-2 Spirits.<\/strong> They are few compared to the 72 B-52 and 62 B-1B that the USAF has active, but it must be taken into account that <strong>the B-2 is by far the most expensive aircraft in the history of aviation:<\/strong>At the time of its entry into service in 1997, each aircraft cost $737 million. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53677791387_832a68eff0_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>The majority of the B-2s are based at Whiteman AFB, Missouri.<\/strong> That base was the scene of a routine Spirit Vigilance exercise on April 15 in which a massive takeoff of 12 B-2 Spirit, more than half of the fleet of these aircraft. Here the video:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Despegue masivo de bombarderos B-2 Spirit\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tzZaz1c4CbY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.af.mil\/News\/Article-Display\/Article\/3750928\/whiteman-afb-demonstrates-readiness-during-spirit-vigilance\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The USAF has noted<\/a> that <em>\"<strong>Spirit Vigilance is one of a series of routine exercises held by Air Force global strike bases<\/strong> across the enterprise that focus on the training and readiness of Airmen. <strong>These exercises are regularly planned and are conducted to continuously evaluate and enhance U.S. deterrence capabilities.<\/strong> You can see some photos of this here. mass takeoff spread by the portal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/image\/8346263\/spirit-vigilance-2024\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DVIDshub.net<\/a> of the US Armed Forces:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53678965554_9622781fcb_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53678607896_7cefc4892b_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53678965544_5cbc44be50_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53677742302_bbf217480f_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photos: U.S. Air Force.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world is experiencing a second Cold War and, as in the first, strategic bomber fleets are a very important asset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11546],"tags":[20698,6731,10431,6761,18497],"class_list":["post-55636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-military-aviation","tag-missouri","tag-northrop-grumman-b-2-spirit","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf","tag-whiteman-afb"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 02:17:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}