On December 2, the new generation of US stealth bomber B21 "Raider" is about to be unveiled publicly, as if to celebrate in advance. On the last day of November, the Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, the United States dispatched 8 B2 stealth bomber at the same time, conducting an "elephant walk" and showing off its muscles in a high-profile manner. Isn’t many people wondering how big is the $20 billion combined? It's clear now.
Look, 20 billion US dollars in 2009 ran on the ground
You should know that from 1989 to the present, the US military has only equipped 21 B2 stealth bombers in total, one of which crashed. This time, the "Elephant Walk" was used to deploy 40% of its combat power. If we include the B2 that was grounded due to complex maintenance, that is to say, the US military almost dispatched all the stealth bomber , which can be moved this time.
This plane fell
This plane broke
Of course, this is not the first "elephant walk" of the B2 stealth bomber. In June 2020, Whiteman Air Force Base also organized a similar "muscle show" activity. However, the scale was much smaller at that time, only 4 B2s slid onto the runway.
This time there are only 4
All 20 B2s of the US military are deployed in this base and are affiliated to the 509th Bomber Wing, which is the unit that dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. Currently, it is the only B-2 unit in the US Air Force that has truly combat capabilities. It has two bomber squadrons, the 13th and 393rd, and there is also an Operation 509th Support Squadron.
All B2s of the US military are deployed at Whiteman Air Base
However, at the beginning of B2 service, the US military planned to equip the 53rd Wing at at Tyndall Air Base at and the 57th Wing at Nellis Air Base at Nelis Air Base . However, due to the final output limitation, the two squadrons have been killed in name only. The 53rd Wing only has the 72nd Test and Evaluation Squadron left, and the 57th Wing only has the 325th Weapon Squadron. In order to unify logistics, the US military has all drawn them to Whiteman Air Force Base for centralized management.
But the 53rd and 57th Wings retained two seed troops
However, although the number of B-2s in the US military is not large, there are many pilots in reserve. There are even multiple female pilots, retaining a seed squadron for the 53rd and 57th Wings respectively, in order to restore their organization one day. This hope is the B-21 "Raider" stealth bomber that will be publicly unveiled on December 2.
B2 female pilot
Compared with B2, B21 has many performance improvements, such as greatly improving the degree of intelligence, and you can choose between human and unmanned driving modes, configure unmanned wingmen, and the tasks performed are no longer limited to bombing. B21 has become a combat platform integrating early warning aircraft , bombers, and fifth-generation aircraft .
B21 will be released tomorrow. What is its appearance?
Don't forget RQ180, this is an unmanned version of B21PLUS
. But the most important thing is that the price of B21 must be cheap enough to avoid the biggest shortcomings of B2, so that it can be equipped with a large amount of equipment, making the 53rd and 57th wings "real to their name". Therefore, in the US military's planning book, the unit price of B21 must not be higher than US$550 million. However, when the development of in 2016 was first started, its unit price had reached US$563 million, and it rose to US$800 million a few years later. According to the latest judgment from the outside world, the unit price of B21 may have exceeded US$2 billion.
B21 Raider Stealth Bomber
And the unit price of the B-2 is about US$2.4 billion. Seeing this, everyone will definitely say that the unit price of the B21 has exceeded US$2 billion. Has the original intention of the US military to develop this aircraft not achieved? But in fact, the unit price of B-2 is about US$2.4 billion, which is the currency value in 2009, while the unit price of B21 exceeds US$2 billion is the currency value in 2022. According to the actual price, B21 is not that cheap, but not so expensive. With the current "slim camel is bigger than a horse" physique in the United States, it can still bear it.
B21 is not that cheap, but not so expensive
However, it is absolutely impossible for the US Air Force to equip 80 to 100 aircraft according to the original plan, because all stealth bombers, whether it is B2, B21 or H20, are facing an embarrassing situation of being out of date at birth in today's era. Today in the 1920s, hypersonic weapons, suborbital aircraft and even orbital-level aircraft are no longer concepts and dreams, and they have truly been tested. The technological revolution , which has brought about an hour of flying around the world, will quickly sweep stealth bombers into the garbage dump of history.
Whether you want it or not, the era of stealth bombers has ended
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