$2.4 Billion Dollar B-2 Bombers To Get a $2 Billion Dollar Upgrade

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/27/143206/b-2-bombers-at-whiteman-afb-get.html


B-2 bombers at Whiteman AFB get $2 billion update
Rick Montgomery | The Kansas City Star
Posted on Tuesday, March 27, 2012

~snip~

A challenge similar to that continually faces Whiteman Air Force Base, home to the B-2 stealth bomber. Many aircraft parts made in the 1980s, when the first of 21 B-2s rolled out of a Northrop Grumman Corp. hangar, are as obsolete today as the floppy disk.

Yet the plan is to keep those bat-winged bombers flying, and eluding the latest in radar technology, until 2058.

The Pentagon is moving forward with a $2 billion, 10-year effort to modernize the fleet’s defensive capabilities. Digital equipment will replace analog, antennas will be upgraded, communication systems and pilot displays will be enhanced — all needed to address “emerging and proliferating 21st century ground and airborne threats,” according to an Air Force report last year to Congress.

Col. Rob Spalding of Whiteman’s 509th Bomb Wing called the coming enhancements “the biggest and most complex update of the B-2 in its history.”



unhappycamper comment: We bought 21 of these bad boys and one of them got wet and crashed on Okinawa.

BTW, Winslow Wheeler on military.com (Flying Blind: Most USAF Aircraft Operating Costs Are Unknown; What Is Known Is Misreported) writes:

The B-2A stealth bomber’s CPFH cost has climbed in the last five years from $86,402 in
2006 to $135,182 in 2010.


Ka ching

[Turbineguy]

1. And these are used for????

What?

[unhappycamper]

2. They drop things that go boom. n/t

[raouldukelives]

4. They help quell the restlessness indigenous populations feel when we take their oil.

One run by these bad boys can be like unleashing 100 Robert Bales on the families that made the mistake of being born on our resources. Plus you earn good money and a medal. Neat!

[Elric]

8. Whose oil did we take?

[raouldukelives]

9. I know I'm in the minority on this one but it's how I feel.

I'm one of those nuts who think just about every war we've ever been involved in was in many ways driven by big money, "resource security" and military contractors.
Of course I know that the common people of Iraq are firmly in control of it's own resources now so it blows a hole in my argument.

[Elric]

3. Sounds reasonable to upgrade them

and get a longer life span out of the plane. Way cheaper than designing and building a new replacement that would be astronomical in cost.

[unhappycamper]

5. Question: Do you think $2.4 billion dollars is a reasonable cost for a B-2 bomber? n/t

[Elric]

7. No I don't

but the option to upgrade them is still a better option. I can't imagine what a replacement aircraft would cost these days if the Pentagon decided it needed a newer and better plane.

[backscatter712]

6. We've got, what, 20 of them in service now?

That's $100 million dollars per airplane.

Your tax dollars at work...

[onethatcares]

10. gotta spend it though,

because those airplanes are a lot more important than schools, roads, medical care or any other thing, except for submarines, could ever be.

our country has lost its way, we have 2billion dollar airplanes dropping 4 million dollar bombs on rocks and adobe homes. we have 5 million dollar drones killing wedding parties because we all know what happens at weddings.

we've really lost our way.

Peace