Key Points and Summary – Thirty-six years after first flight, the B-2 remains the Air Force’s first-night, deep-strike bomber.
-Its flying-wing stealth, buried engines, and smooth, seam-free skin let it slip past surveillance and engagement radars, while modernized flight-management “brains,” fiber-optic networking, and fused cockpit displays speed AI-assisted target validation.
B-2 Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
B-2 Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-Combat-proven from Kosovo to Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, the B-2 can fly ~6,000 nautical miles without refueling and operate at 50,000 feet.
-It carries JDAMs, JSOW, JASSM, GBU-28, the B61-12, and the 30,000-lb Massive Ordnance Penetrator—credited in Operation Midnight Hammer—keeping 20 Spirits at Whiteman AFB ready to open air corridors for the force.
B-2 at 36: The Stealth Bomber That Still Starts the Fight
Slicing through the sky with bat-like wings, eluding enemy radar with stealth technology, quietly destroying enemy air defenses from 50,000 ft, and using computers to merge sensor data with targeting information—the Air Force’s B-2 bomber has been in the air attacking targets for 36 years.
The B-2’s performance in Operation Midnight Hammer drew massive praise from President Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and senior Air Force Generals.
The stealth platform attacks when a pilot pulls up a weapons suite screen, aligns the weapon with the target, and enters information into the B-2’s DED, or Digital Entry Panel.
B-2 Pilots explain this process, and while few details are available regarding the specifics of its upgrades, today’s B-2 likely uses computer automation, AI-enabled target verification, and a new generation of command and control technology.
The B-2 took its first flight on July 17, 1989, making this year its 36th Anniversary.
B-2 Missions
After debuting on the scene in the early 1990s, the B-2 made its combat debut in the late 1990s, when the aircraft destroyed Serbian targets over Kosovo.
The airframe design was conceived of as a Cold War weapon, engineered to knock out Soviet advanced air defenses. The intent was to build upon and surpass the F-117 Night Hawk’s stealth technology, as used in the Gulf War.
A B-2 Spirit makes a low pass flyover during the 2024 Warriors Over the Wasatch Open House and Air Show June 29, 2024, at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The B-2 Spirit, the predecessor to the new B-21 Raider, has been the U.S. Air Force’s premiere stealth bomber for more than 20 years. (U.S. Air Force photo by Cynthia Griggs)
The Spirit of Pennsylvania B-2 Spirit assigned to the 419th Flight Test Squadron lands at Edwards Air Force Base, California, July 17. (Air Force photo by Lindsey Iniguez)
The B-2’s stealth configuration, buried engine, low heat signature, and radar-absorbent coating are designed not only to evade enemy weapons but also to complete missions without being detected by the enemy.
Its core mission: launch secret, quiet, undetected attacks over heavily defended enemy territory to create a safer air corridor for less stealthy planes to operate within extremely lethal, otherwise uninhabitable airspace.
Weapons selection, navigational data, and intelligence analysis are all controlled by a human pilot, operating a digital display, computer screen, and fire control system in the sky. The aircraft has eight displays, and incoming data from different sensor data pools is likely now fused into a common picture for pilots.
The B-2 has flown missions over Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. Given its ability to fly as many as 6,000 nautical miles without needing to refuel, the B-2 flew from Missouri all the way to an island off the coast of India called Diego Garcia before launching bombing missions over Afghanistan.
B-2 Modernization
While the original engineering may have dated back to the 1980s, numerous upgrades, adaptations, and technological improvements have been implemented to keep the bomber current, relevant, and ahead of evolving threats.
The enhancements are multifaceted and, among other things, involve re-hosting the flight management control processors, the brains of the airplane, onto much more capable integrated processing units.
This results in the laying of new fiber-optic cable, rather than the mix bus cable previously used, because original B-2 computers from the 1980s could be overloaded with data in a modern war environment, Air Force officials said.
A U.S. Air Force Maj. B-2 pilot marshals a B-2 Spirit bomber, deployed from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam in support of Valiant Shield 24, June 13, 2024. The speed, flexibility, and readiness of our strategic bombers plays a critical role in our ability to deter potential adversaries and signal our unwavering support to our allies and partners. Counter-maritime missions provide valuable training opportunities to improve our interoperability and demonstrate that our forces are capable of operating anywhere, anytime, to meet any challenge decisively. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Kristen Heller)
B-2 Stealth
The B-2 is not only rounded and curved but also entirely horizontal, without vertical structures. This creates a scenario in which a return electromagnetic ping, or radar signal, cannot obtain an accurate rendering of the plane.
The exterior is both smooth and curved, with no visible seams that join the fuselage sections.
Weapons are carried internally, while antennas and sensors are often built into parts of the fuselage itself to minimize detectable shapes on the aircraft.
By not having protruding objects, shapes, or specific vertical configurations such as fins, the bomber succeeds in evading enemy radar, which is unable to generate enough returning electromagnetic pings to determine that an aircraft is there.
An indispensable premise of B-2 sustainment is that the aircraft be prepared to succeed in the most high-threat or contested combat environments likely to exist.
The intent is not only to evade higher-frequency engagement radar, which enables air defenses to actually shoot down an airplane, but also to evade lower-frequency surveillance radar, which can simply detect an aircraft in the vicinity.
Additionally, stealth aircraft such as the B-2 are built with an internal, or buried, engine to decrease the heat signature emerging from the exhaust.
One goal of stealth aircraft thermal management is to align the aircraft’s temperature with that of the surrounding air, thereby minimizing the heat differential that enemy sensors could detect.
The priority, maintainers explain, is to ensure the weapons, electronics, computing, and stealth properties are all continuously upgraded.
B-2 Bomber. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
An R-12 hydrant service vehicle refuels a B-2 Spirit during hot-pit refueling operations at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, May 28, 2025. Hot-pit refueling is the practice of refueling an aircraft immediately after landing while keeping the engines running. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua Hastings)
Today’s B-2 could almost be described, in some ways, as an entirely different airplane with the same basic exterior as it was upon first flight in 1989.
The Air Force currently operates 20 B-2 bombers, with the majority of them based at Whiteman AFB in Missouri. The B-2 can reach altitudes of 50,000 feet and carry 40,000 pounds of payload, including both conventional and nuclear weapons.
B-2 Weapons
In recent years, the B-2 has been testing with the B-61 Mod 12, an upgraded variant of several different nuclear bombs that integrates their functionality into one weapon. This not only decreases payload but, of course, multiplies attack options for pilots.
For instance, a B-2 could quickly adjust from a point-detonate variant of the B-61 Mod 12 to one designed with penetration capabilities, Air Force officials said.
Alongside its nuclear arsenal, the B-2 carries a wide range of conventional weapons, including precision-guided 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs, 5,000-pound JDAMs, Joint Standoff Weapons, Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, and GBU 28 5,000-pound bunker buster weapons, among others.
The B-2 also carries a 30,000-pound conventional bomb known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a weapon described as a more explosive version of the Air Force GBU-28 bunker buster.
As many know, the MOP was used against Iranian nuclear targets in Operation Midnight Hammer.
About the Author: Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel.
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