B-2 was born, the U.S. national debt was only 3 trillion U.S. dollars. By the time B-21 sprouted, the U.S. national debt had reached 31 trillion U.S. dollars. Picture: Observer.com
article | Zhu Guoshun
At 4:30 pm on December 2, Western Time, the United States publicly displayed the new generation stealth bomber B-21 for the first time. The psychedelic unveiling ceremony was held in California, where Hollywood is located, at the Palmdale plant of arms dealer Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman, the manufacturer of the B-2 stealth bomber, now claims to be preparing to produce 100 B-21s.
Since the development of the B-21 by Shen Shen Nao Dao a few years ago, this so-called sixth-generation stealth bomber has always been a somewhat embarrassing role in the eyes of many experts. Thirty years ago, the United States already had bombers like the B-2. Now it wants to build a smaller version of the B-2, the B-21, which looks almost exactly the same. Except for the possible generational improvements in radar, , software and stealth paint, there is no logical inevitability.
But everything may not have logical inevitability, and sometimes helplessness is also a motivation. If viewed from the perspective of the United States' helplessness rather than necessity, the B-21's embarrassment is very logical.
In the past twenty years of the new century, the United States has been staggering. In the words of an Internet celebrity, "The U.S. government always messes up everything in an orderly and step-by-step manner." This is true for everything from the financial crisis, the hollowing out of the industry, the out-of-control epidemic, the defeat of Afghanistan, to the ups and downs of the arms market. The United States has the unparalleled stealth fighter F-22, but it felt that US$100 million for one was too expensive and it remodeled the "cheap" F-35. As a result, the short, fat and slow F-35 was sold for a maximum of 140 million US dollars, which made the "understanding king" so angry that he was incoherent. The "innovative, science fiction" Zumwalt destroyer and littoral combat ship had to be abandoned after spending huge sums of money. The B-2 also felt that US$2 billion per unit was too expensive. It closed the production line early after building 21 of the expected 100 aircraft. But after 30 years, the B-2 became old.
There is an interesting phenomenon in these faltering steps, which is that the military-industrial complex of the military and arms dealers "likes the new and dislikes the old" and engages in many "new concepts", although few are successful. From a business perspective, this is very logical. The profits of "old" products will become lower and lower, and only "new" things can sell for astronomical prices. So when B-2 was about to get old, although there was not much money to refuel, "New Concept" English still made a good PPT, which is B-21.
The core of B-21 is to save money, trying to build a smaller version of B-21 that is comparable to B-2 at less than half the price of B-2. At the ceremony on the 2nd, the B-21 seen by the outside world was much smaller than the B-2. It was speculated that the load capacity was about half of the B-2, and the appearance was smoother than the B-2. Obviously, it is trying to achieve "cheapness" by sacrificing the main performance of a stand-alone aircraft such as size, take-off weight, maximum range, bomb load, , etc., while also having modern stealth and network-centric warfare capabilities.
Contractor No. G said that the B-21’s features include “further improved stealth capabilities, open source and continuously updated software systems, a multi-platform information sharing system that incorporates ‘all-domain joint command and control’, and saves money compared to the B-2.” Although some of these contents are worthy of vigilance, these are common skills in the competition between big powers that are equally matched in science and technology.
is even more invisible. It is said that it uses a new surface coating. It is difficult to qualitatively change the invisible appearance in the flying wing form similar to the B-2. The new "full spectrum stealth" coating may have an effect but it will be very limited. Open source software has long been an iterative method used by , apple, and Huawei, and it is not something extremely sophisticated. As for multi-sensor information sharing, it is nothing more than a distributed information sharing and control platform, and it is also a "cabbage" technology for network-centric warfare. Saving money seems to be the most certain thing, but who knows the result? The F-35, which was once short, fat and slow, was said to be half cheaper than the F-22, but after all, it is still a lot more expensive.
Some details in the ceremony are thought-provoking.The B-21 was pushed back to the hangar shortly after its appearance. The outside world only saw its front photo, and the sides and back were deliberately hidden. Northrop Grumman's introduction contained many Hollywood-style function words, such as the world "has never seen technology like the B-21", etc., but no specific technical indicators were announced. These are all very different from 30 years ago when the B-2 was the only one in the world and made its debut to "speak with data." This may be "it is inconvenient to elaborate" or it may be "nothing to say". The emergence of
B-21 deserves vigilance, but in essence it is inseparable from the framework of a modern and simplified version of B-2. Just as war is a continuation of politics, the emergence of the simple version is inseparable from the decline of the American economy in the past thirty years. When B-2 was born, the U.S. national debt was only $3 trillion. By the time B-21 sprouted, the U.S. national debt had reached $31 trillion. Just like the falling flowers are intentional, but the flowing water is ruthless.
The dusk of the empire is always full of embarrassment and helplessness.
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