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bad news all 20 B2 stealth bombers have been grounded until further notice
last week the Air Force grounded its entire fleet of B-2 Spirit bombers after a malfunction
that resulted in a crash landing earlier this month no air crew were injured in nearly three
decades this tiny Fleet of bombers has lost only one plane to an accident an investigation
is ongoing here's a timeline of what we know so far
due to an undisclosed malfunction a B2 is damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force
Base in Missouri during routine operations on December 10th forcing the crew to make
an emergency landing the aircraft caught fire shortly after the landing and the base fire
department extinguished the fire the Air Force said in a statement to the Press
the base Runway has been closed since December 12th the aircraft is currently visible via
satellite view on Google Maps the big bomber ran off the Runway and under the grass Emergency
Services Vehicles face pickup trucks and other equipment surrounded neither the runway or
the grass appear to be singed by fire so the onboard fire may have been comparatively minor
interestingly the b2's twin air intakes and exhausts are covered with some sort of metallic
reflective foil the purpose of the foil is unknown but may be used to obscure some aspect
of the airplane's stealth characteristics it could also be related to the onboard fire
in the wake of the crash the Air Force has temporarily grounded all 20 of its B2 Spirit
bombers which are normally based in Whiteman Air Force Base with the exception of one aircraft
based at Edwards Air Force Base in California
according to Aaron's space Force's magazine the b2s can still fly if directed by the commander-in-chief
to fulfill Mission requirements in other words the fleet is still available to fly in emergencies
as it did during the 2017 airstrikes against isos fighters in Libya the b2s could also
fly nuclear deterrence missions considering they're one of only two nuclear-capable bombers
in the U.S the b-52h strata Fortress being the other [Music] the U.S Air Force originally
planned to buy 132 b2s but the aircraft developed at the tail end of the Cold War suddenly found
itself without a mission the purchase was trimmed to just 20 planes plus a prototype
that would be converted into a combat-ready aircraft this service further cut down this
Fleet of 21 planes to just 20 in 2008 after a crash that destroyed the aircraft Spirit
of Kansas
another crash in 2010 severely damaged Spirit of Washington the plane which experienced
a fire so severe it melted aluminum and turned cables into Ash was eventually judged to be
repairable the plane spent a year on the island of Guam the site of the crash where it underwent
initial repairs then it made the flight across the Pacific to Palmdale California where full
repairs were made the repairs to the bomber became Lazarus totaled approximately 110 million
dollars and the plane is fully operational today
starting in the late 2020s the B2 is scheduled to be replaced with the upcoming B-21 Raider
bomber Fleet is old with an average aircraft age of 26 years and the plane is expensive
to fly and maintain the B-21 Raider is expected to be cheaper on both counts and the service
will buy at least 100 bombers if not 140 or even 200.
if all continues to go well with the B-21 program the older bombers should be phased
out in the next 10 years if not sooner foreign [Music]
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thank you [Music]
thank you