{"id":1800790,"date":"2023-01-10T08:51:17","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1800790"},"modified":"2023-01-10T08:56:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T13:56:08","slug":"b-2-spirit-and-b-21-raider-draw-inevitable-comparisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/b-2-spirit-and-b-21-raider-draw-inevitable-comparisons\/","title":{"rendered":"B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider Draw Inevitable Comparisons"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fb-2-spirit-and-b-21-raider-draw-inevitable-comparisons%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1800790&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><br \/>\n<h2 class=\"title-alt-01\"><span class=\"font-color-01\">B-2 Spirit, B-21 Raider Draw Unavoidable Comparisons (Updated).<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"article-main-img\">\n                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/-\/media\/sites\/magazine\/2023\/01\/5578155.jpg?h=500&#038;w=878&#038;la=en&#038;hash=159CBA2B840DC8494841AA1BCEA8294D\" alt=\"\"   style=\"display:none\"><br \/>\n                                    <span>Bomber B-2<\/span>\n                            <\/div>\n<p class=\"photo-credit\">Air Force photo<\/p>\n<p><strong>PALMDALE, California \u2014<\/strong> Only a few minutes before the new B-21 Raider was rolled out of its hangar in Northrop Grumman\u2019s high desert facility, its predecessor the B-2 Spirit flew above the crowd as a company employee sang the National Anthem. <\/p>\n<p>Comparisons between the two strategic bombers are inevitable as they are similar in shape \u2014 both so-called \u201cflying wings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Northrop Grumman also built the B-2, which made its public debut in Air Force Hangar 42 at the contractor\u2019s Palmdale factory almost 34 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the roll-out ceremony for the Raider, Northrop\u2019s program manager for the B-2 Shaugn Reynolds stood in front of the Spirit of California, one of the 20 stealthy bombers remaining in the Air Force inventory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs the world\u2019s only long-range penetrating strike platform, you can tell them the flying wing is here and alive and well,\u201d He told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>It may look so, but it\u2019s not the same aircraft that the Air Force began operating at the tail end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n<p>Reynolds stated that the Spirit of California was finishing a year-long renovation, where its stealth coating was removed and replaced by the most advanced radar-resistant material.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen we go through modifications \u2014 both structurally and with the avionics components \u2014 and refurbish them, pulling it all back together within 365 days,\u201d He said. He said that B-2s are subject to a refit every nine years.<\/p>\n<p>You can compare the new tech and materials to the iPhones a decade ago with what the public uses today. \u201cThat\u2019s the technology advancements that you\u2019re seeing here on the material side,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<p>He was not allowed to talk about specifics but the radar cross measurement is the number that the program uses for assessing how \u201cinvisible\u201d The B-2 is for enemy sensors, \u201csignificantly improved\u201d He said that he was amazed at how it performed ten years ago.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that the refurbished B-2 will undergo flight checks and be returned to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.<\/p>\n<p>Choosing the flying wing design wasn\u2019t a given, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics Andrew Hunter, told reporters later. \u201cThere were thousands of designs proposed and this was the winning design,\u201d He said.<\/p>\n<p>Kathy Warden, Northrop Grumman&#8217;s president and CEO, stated, \u201cWe iterated \u2026 on thousands of designs before picking the design that met the aircraft requirements, and the flying wing is the best alternative for meeting those requirements and affordability targets,\u201d She said.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s experience building a stealthy flying wing has helped in the development of the B-21 Raider, Reynolds said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look at the B-2 as risk reduction for the B-21,\u201d He said. He added that one of the greatest benefits to building both flying wings was in manufacturing techniques.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe still have technicians that are still with the company that did the [B-2] production line,\u201d He said. He added that they are experts in the manufacturing process.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the B-21\u2019s development has helped keep the B-2 relevant as some of the technologies in the new program have been integrated into Spirit, he said.<\/p>\n<p>One similarity between the two bombers Northrop Grumman and the Air Force wouldn\u2019t want to see is the B-2\u2019s history in Congress. The original plan was to build more than 70 bombers. However, program costs escalated with the Cold War approaching and only 21 Spirits were built. One Spirit was later lost in a crash.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force aims to acquire 100 B-21 raiders for $550 million each by 2010. Hunter and Warden confirmed the program is on-time and within budget, but did not update the cost per aircraft.<\/p>\n<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Shaugn Reynolds&#8217; first name.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\n                                <strong class=\"font-color-01 font-size-02\">Topics:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/articles?Topic={F6860595-A5E9-43F7-956F-CA9245605E1D}\">Air Force News<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/articles?Topic={805FAB80-91AF-4277-AFFC-4BA10E92DD1B}\">Air Power<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldefensemagazine.org\/articles?Topic={957B361A-A208-4D59-AFE7-857E4508D4B6}\">Tactical Aircraft<\/a>\n                            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>B-2 Spirit, B-21 Raider Draw Unavoidable Comparisons (Updated). Bomber B-2 Air Force photo PALMDALE, California \u2014 Only a few minutes before the new B-21 Raider was rolled out of its hangar in Northrop Grumman\u2019s high desert facility, its predecessor the B-2 Spirit flew above the crowd as a company employee sang the National Anthem. Comparisons &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1800793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[10626,7224,5458,14192,7484,8444,7223,3819,8924],"class_list":["post-1800790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-b-2","tag-b-21","tag-bongino","tag-comparisons","tag-draw","tag-inevitable","tag-raider","tag-report","tag-spirit"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1800790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1800793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1800790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1800790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1800790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}