B2

Development
In a 1994 live fire exercise near Point Mugu, California, a B-2 depicted dropping forty-seven 500 lb (230 kg) class Mark 82 bombs, which is more than half of a B-2's total ordnance payload.
[edit] ATB project
The B-2 Spirit originated from the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) black project that began in 1979.[6] The Cold War was well underway, and on the campaign trail in 1979 and 1980, candidate Ronald Reagan promised a restoration of American military strength. On 22 August 1980, the incumbent Carter administration publicly disclosed that the Department of Defense was working to develop stealth aircraft including the ATB.[7]

After the evaluations of the companies' proposals, the ATB competition was reduced to the Northrop/Boeing and Lockheed/Rockwell teams with each receiving a study contract for further work.[6] The Northrop design was larger while the Lockheed design was smaller and included a small tail.[8] The black project was funded under the code name "Aurora".[8] The Northrop/Boeing team's ATB design was selected over the Lockheed/Rockwell design on October 20, 1981.[6][9]

The Northrop design received the designation B-2 and the name "Spirit". The bomber's design was changed in the mid-1980s when the mission profile was changed from high-altitude to low-altitude, terrain-following. The redesign delayed the B-2's first flight by two years and added about US$1 billion to the program's cost.[7] An estimated US$23 billion was secretly spent for research and development on the B-2 by 1989.[10] At the program's peak, approximately 13,000 people were employed at a dedicated plant in Pico Rivera, California for the plane's engineering and portions of its manufacturing.[11]

The B-2 was first publicly displayed on November 22, 1988, at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, California, where it was assembled. Its first public flight was on July 17, 1989 from Palmdale.[12]


[edit] ProcurementA procurement of 132 aircraft was planned in the mid-1980s, but was later reduced to 75.[13] By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union had disintegrated, which effectively rendered void the Spirit's primary Cold War mission. In light of budgetary pressures and congressional opposition, in his 1992 State of the Union Address, President George H.W. Bush announced B-2 production would be limited to a total of 20 aircraft.[14] In 1996, however, the Clinton administration, though originally committed to ending production of the bombers once the 20th aircraft was completed, authorized the conversion of a 21st bomber, a prototype test model, to Block 30 full operational status at a cost of nearly $500 million.[15]

The bomber's high costs reflected the innovation of a paperless computer aided design (CAD) system, and a computerized manufacturing control system. The costs also reflect the inefficiencies of separating design teams into different parts of the country for both design intelligence compartmentalization as a counter-espionage measure, and by parceling out the supply chain with the requisite lucrative contracts to congressional districts as a political reward.

Northrop made a proposal to the USAF in 1995 to build 20 additional aircraft with a flyaway cost of $566M each.[16]