In addition to being the first modern mass-produced heavy-flying stealth aircraft, the B-2 Spirit is the most expensive aircraft in aviation history.
During production, which lasted from 1986 to 1999, one unit was estimated (according to open sources) about $ 2.1 billion, a total of 21 aircraft were produced.
B-2 Spirit uses stealth technology, the fuselage of the aircraft is covered with radar absorbing materials, the engine jets are shielded, and the effective dispersion area is small.
Combat use of the B-2 has not been noted in recent years, but they are on permanent duty and patrolling different parts of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In 2019, three American B-2 Spirit bombers were deployed to the British military airbase Fairford.
According to The National Interest, the current upgrade aims to achieve “some progress by adding the so-called defense management system on the updated B-2 Spirit.” This is supposed to allow the B-2 to detect and avoid enemy air defenses.
According to the American publication, “This is especially important, as the new generation of Russian air defense systems can track stealth aircraft.”
The Pentagon does not disclose the specifics of the operation to protect a strategic bomber from the radar systems of the modernized S-400 and more modern S-500 anti-aircraft missile systems. “They are probably not available to the public for security reasons. All the military has come up with is that the bomber’s reflectivity will increase from 80% to almost 100%. No car had such indicators before, ”says the National Interest.
Russian experts are skeptical of these statements.
“The modernization of the American B-2 strategic bomber may be in its new weapons, but not in the ability to evade Russian air defense systems,” military expert Major General Vladimir Popov told socialbites.ca. – The modern air defense system is built to provide multi-layered air defense along the lines and at depth. Our air defense forces are positioned in such a way that it does not allow them to overcome, neither at too low nor at high altitudes. Let’s say, even if they miss distant approaches, then it is no longer allowed to approach strategic objects, large industrial centers.
The General reminded that the secret system does not work in principle in the S-500 systems that are currently in service with the RF Armed Forces.
“The S-500 is equipped with Yenisey all-altitude radar detector. This is a fully digital locator, the signal is digitized and sent to a separate processor for processing. Its antenna is an active phased array. Roll-up and roll-out time does not exceed 5 minutes. It is designed to operate continuously for an almost unlimited period of time. Detects aerial objects at altitudes above 100 km, at the border of space and airspace, at distances above 600 km. But the main thing is that the “Yenisei”, according to the developers, can overcome its “hidden” reflective properties. And it doesn’t matter whether this reflection works at 80% or 100%. Stealth technology is useless. The S-500 radar will easily detect the B-2 Spirit,” the general added.
Military analyst and broadcaster Vladislav Shurygin agrees with this view.
“This is a clear PR of the American aviation industry, which puffed the cheeks of the B-2 strategic bomber,” Shurygin told socialbites.ca. – The plane is not bad, it managed to bombard Yugoslavia, among other targets, smashed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, a fact that the Chinese comrades have not forgotten to this day. It also left its mark on strikes in Afghanistan, where there was no air defense at all. We spent hundreds of ammunition there, but there is no victory over the real enemy.”