B-2A Spirit ja B-21 Raider häivepommikoneet

Einomies1

Respected Leader
En keksinyt muutakaan ketjua, joten loin uuden näille häivepommittajille.
Kuvaa KC-10 Extender ilmatankkauskoneesta kun B-2A tulee täydennykseen. Alussa Growler ja Super Hornet myös tankilla.

Lopussa näkyy miten ilmatankkausyhde häviää koneen sisään ja tilalle tulee sileä pinta. B-2A on kieltämätää häijyn näköinen kone. Jopa pelkkä siluetti antaa pelottavan vaikutuksen, eikä siitä voi erehtyä.
 
B-21 Development Applying Tough Lessons From B-2

Aug 21, 2019

Lee Hudson | Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

PALMDALE, California— The U.S. Air Force is taking lessons learned from the plagued B-2 Spirit bomber development program and applying them to the next-generation B-21 Raider. While it is unknown when the B-2 will retire, the aging stealth bomber may end up flying alongside the B-21. ... Although technical and acquisition problems inundated B-2 development, the classified B-21 is taking a different approach. ...

B-21 development appears to be progressing; the Air Force’s No. 2 officer—Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson—has said first flight is slated for December 2021. ... An Air Force illustration issued in 2016 of the B-21 design suggests it may closely resemble the B-2. ... “What we’ve learned on B-2 are finding themselves baselined in the design for B-21 for supportability, sustainability, [and] mission capable rate.”

The aging B-2s must be overhauled every nine years and are taken off the flight line for up to 12 months. Maintenance includes modifications and upgrades to antenna technology, avionics and software systems, costing U.S. taxpayers an average of $60 million for each aircraft, says Richard Sullivan, vice president and B-2 program manager at Northrop Grumman.

Separately, the Air Force is funding the $3 billion B-2 Defensive Management System Modernization (DMS-M) program to enhance the aircraft’s direct attack capability and upgrade its integrated air defense systems. The current DMS was designed in the 1980s and has not received any upgrades. “By leveraging ‘state-of-the-art’ electronic warfare antennae, processors, controller and displays, B-2 aircrews will realize unprecedented situational battlespace awareness and dynamic, real-time threat avoidance in the most complex radio frequency emitter environments,” the Air Force says. “The inherent increased sensitivity of the modernized DMS over the legacy system, with increased processing power, will build a battlespace picture that could be shared with joint force platforms by onboard communication systems.” DMS-M is facing a possible eight-month delay as the service works with Northrop Grumman to implement an agile software development framework, Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper told lawmakers in March. Engineering and manufacturing development for the effort goes through July 2022, according to fiscal 2020 budget documents.

Lawmakers acknowledge it is important that the nation’s only operational stealth bomber remain relevant. But the House Armed Services Committee is concerned about DMS-M schedule delays, according to a report accompanying the lower chamber’s mark of the fiscal 2020 defense policy bill. “Unless the B-2 DMS-M program makes significant changes, there may continue to be delays that will impact the success of the program,” the report says. ...

“Everything I hear is that cost, schedule and performance is right on expectations,” Dawkins says.

https://aviationweek.com/defense/b-21-d ... essons-b-2
 
Maksuseinän takana joten kopsasin koko jutun.

Hyvä aloitus mutta taisi lipsahtaa vika paikkaan. Joku modeista varmaan siirtää. Ping @setämies ?
 
USAF julkaissut renderöintejä B-21:stä:

Katso liite: 36964
Puhelin meni aivan sekaisin tuosta linkistä. Varmaan liittyy addblockeriin.
Mitäs uutta oletetaan, että tämä kone tuo tullessaan?
 
Sisko laitteli viestiä taannoin, että talon yli lensi musta lepakon näköinen iso lentokone. Olisi kyllä upeata myös nähdä B2. Tänä VKL super bowl joten ken tietää vaikka B21 nähtäisiin ensimmäistä kertaa livenä.
 
B-2A Spirit on tehnyt pakkolaskun Whitemanissa 16.9. ja vaurioitunut pahoin. Edellinen sattui 2010 Guamilla ja johti 4 vuoden remonttiin ennen paluuta palvelukseen. Vähien häivepommarien korjaus lienee tähtitieteellisen kallista ja hankalaa. Muutakaan ei ole tilalle ennenkuin B-21 Raider saapuu.

B-2 Crashes at Whiteman; No Injuries, But Status of Operations Withheld

Sept. 16, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

A B-2 bomber is lying damaged on the side of the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., after a crash early Sep. 14. Air Force Global Strike Command is withholding information about the condition of the aircraft and the operational status of Whiteman’s sole runway, but no one was injured in the mishap.

The unidentified aircraft—most of the 20 B-2s are named for a state—“experienced an inflight malfunction during a routine training mission” at about 12:30 a.m. local time, an AFGSC spokeswoman said. It was damaged on the runway “after an emergency landing,” she said. There were no personnel injuries and no fire as a result of the accident, and no munitions were aboard the aircraft, she said. Further details will be provided after an investigation.

AFGSC issued a notice to Airmen (NOTAM) shortly after the accident to keep at least six miles away from the base. The initial notice said the airspace would be restricted through Sept. 17. The reason for the NOTAM was given as “to provide a safe environment for accident investigation.”

The command declined to answer questions about whether Whiteman’s runway is operational or whether B-2s are continuing to operate while the crash is being investigated and the aircraft recovered. Whiteman is home to all 20 of the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, although typically a handful are away from the base on deployment or detached to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for testing.

The accident marks the third major mishap for the B-2 since it began operational service in 1991. One (“Spirit of Kansas”) crashed and burned during a takeoff from Guam in 2008 and was a total loss. A second (“Spirit of Kitty Hawk”) was badly damaged in a 2010 fire, also at Guam. However, that aircraft was partially repaired, flown back to the continental U.S., and received a four-year restoration before returning to service
. https://www.airforcemag.com/b-2-crash-whiteman-no-injuries-status-of-operations-withheld/

edit. Korjaus päivämäärään 14.9.
 
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As classified B-21 bomber nears flight, secret facility sees more curious ‘probing’

Home to top secret projects, Air Force's Plant 42 is nirvana for aviation enthusiasts, who apparently sometimes take their interest too far.

By Valerie Insinna on April 08, 2022 at 11:00 AM

PALMDALE, Calif.: Weird things keep happening at Air Force Plant 42. Drunk drivers ramming into barbed wire fences. A lost traveler looking for a gas station. Seemingly repetitive auto accidents. As the Air Force gets ready for first flight of the highly classified B-21 bomber, service officials told Breaking Defense the secretive facility where it is being built has seen a rising number of incursions — suspected snoopers hoping to sneak a peak at the latest secret project.

“We are seeing increased incidents of what I will call probing,” said David Smith, director of Air Force Plant 42, where Northrop Grumman is building the service’s new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider.

Among aviation enthusiasts, Plant 42 has a mythic reputation not unlike Area 51 due to the number of black programs that are developed and tested within the 5,800 acres of the desert facility.

B-21 Getting Close To First Flight

Breaking Defense visited Plant 42 on Thursday during travel with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, who toured the B-21 production line. According to a readout, Hicks “saw the B-21 initial flight test aircraft in the loads-calibration fixture, beginning its verification and validation process.” (Breaking Defense and other reporters were not permitted to see the B-21.)

Hicks’ visit to Plant 42, where Northrop current has six B-21s in production, comes just a day after the Air Force awarded a $108 million contract to the company for advanced procurement. The funds will pay for long lead supplies and components that will build the first production lot of B-21s.

The Air Force requested $5 billion for the program in fiscal 2023, including $1.7 billion in procurement funding. Air Force leaders have declined to disclosed exactly how many bombers that will buy. In all, the Air Force intends to buy at least 100 B-21s over the course of the program of record to replace the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit, taking those bombers’ place at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas; Whiteman AFB, Mo.; and Ellsworth AFB, S.D. Each B-21 is projected to cost approximately $550 million in FY10 dollars.

“The B-21 Raider program is foundational to the Air Force’s operational imperative for an effective, long-range strike family of systems to guarantee our ability to strike any target, anytime, anywhere, even in the most contested environment,” Brown said.

“The quality of the aircraft build, coupled with its open systems architecture design and built-in margin for future growth, will provide our warfighters the competitive advantage we’ll need to deter current and future conflicts, and fight and win if called upon to do so.”

There are signs that the Raider is hurtling towards its first flight, which could happen as early as this year.

Last month, Rapid Capabilities Office Director Randall Walden told Air Force Magazine that the first B-21 bomber had moved off the production line and into a calibration facility, where it will undergo testing to ensure the structure of the aircraft meets the Air Force’s requirements.

“It’s got landing gear. … It’s got wheels on it. … It’s got the wings on it. It really looks like a bomber,” Walden told the magazine.

After calibration tests are over, the first B-21 will be powered on and its engines started for the first time for additional testing. From there, the aircraft will proceed into taxi tests before it’s rolled out and flown for the first time.

However, due to the secretive nature of the program, many details remain classified — including the projected date of the first flight and first delivery of the new bomber.

“No mention has been made of a desired speed, although the combination of long range, large payload, and cost constraints strongly suggest B-21 will be subsonic,” the Congressional Research Service wrote in a September report on the program. “Details such as the B-21’s size, required stealth, structure, number and type of engines, projected weapons, and onboard sensors remain classified, which makes evaluating the proposed cost difficult.”https://breakingdefense.com/2022/04...ht-secret-facility-sees-more-curious-probing/
 
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