Military Grounds Stealth Bomber Fleet

Ponca City, We Love You writes "America's entire B-2 stealth bomber fleet, which has played a crucial part in all major US conflicts since 1989, has been grounded after one of the jets crashed near a military base in Guam. The crash — the first involving the B-2 — was the most expensive single aircraft accident in history. (The planes cost $1.2B each.) Officials assume the crash was caused by either mechanical failure or human error, but have grounded all B-2s to ensure there is not some fundamental fault developing in the 21-strong fleet. The crash occurred Saturday morning local time as the B-2 was taking off from Andersen Air Force base on Guam, a US territory south of Japan. An Air Force spokesman said, 'The cause of crash is unknown, pending an investigation. The pilots had ejected safely — no serious injuries. One is mobile, one is still in the hospital under observation.'"

Comments

Re:No biggie

[Brian Gordon]

The 2005 U.S. military budget was larger than that of the next 168 biggest spenders combined, and over eight times larger than the official military budget of China. The United States and its close allies are responsible for about two-thirds of the world's military spending (of which, in turn, the US is responsible for the majority).

The recent invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are largely funded through supplementary spending bills outside the Federal Budget, so they are not included in the military budget figures listed above.[13] In addition, the United States has black budget military spending which is not listed as Federal spending and is not included in published military spending figures. Other military-related items, like maintenance of the nuclear arsenal and the money spent by the Veterans Affairs Department, are not included in the official budget.

(source)

not the most expensive aircraft accident in histor

[thesazi]

It cost $1.7bn to replace the space shuttle Challenger. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/information/shuttle_faq.html#1

Re:Stealth?

[Taleron]

When it comes to US military aircraft in general, they typically last for a long time. "State of the art" might be somewhat of an understatement if such a thing is possible due to crazy amounts of military spending and overall lack of many contesting forces in the skies even over the long term.

The F-15 Strike Eagle rolled out in 1989, same year as the B-2; it remains an advanced "Air Superiority" fighter and it's planned to be in service until 2025.
The F-14 Tomcat was just retired, after 30+ years in service.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II (or "Warthog"), 1977, still in service (brief retirement).
The F-4 Phantom went into production in 1960, ended in 1981, but the "Wild Weasel" variant was used even in the Gulf War. That's over 35 years, the longest of US jet aircraft.

And dipping slightly out of theme, the UH-1 Huey was introduced in 1959. Though the Blackhawk replaced it, they are still occasionally dusted off for missions.

Math

[AtomicSnarl]

$9000/sec? Try again. From the Telegraph article:

Range (unrefueled): 6800 Mi (approx numbers, people)
Approx Cruising Speed: 400 mph (they don't fly full out all the time)
Duration: 17 hours
Fuel Load: 167,000 lbs
Fuel Rate: 9,800 lbs/hour
At 6 lb/gal: 1633 gal/hr
At $3/gal: $4900/hour

Which is pretty comparable to commercial 4 engine passenger and cargo jets.

Oh -- that means it carries 20 tons at less than 5 gallons per ton-mile.
A 22 mpg pickup with 3/4 ton load is 29 gal/ton-mile.
A Prius at 45 mpg and an 500 lb load (4 pax) is 11 gal/ton-mile.

I don't think they make a Stealth Prius yet.

Re:Huge Military Budget = Declining Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

"The Spanish Empire collapsed after building a huge armada of ships, only to see the fleet destroyed by an upstart Britain."

Do you just make this stuff up as you go along? If you're referring to the battle of the Spanish Armada in 1588, you should read Garett Mattingly's Pulitzer-prize winning "The Armada". You'd discover that (1)England was not an "upstart," and its fleet was roughly as powerful (probably more powerful) than the Spanish fleet; (2)It was an English fleet, not a British fleet (and yes, there was a real difference then), (3)The English fleet did not "destroy" the Spanish fleet, and, most important, (4)The defeat of the Armada marked the beginning, not the end, of Spain's strongest navy, and the Spanish empire *grew* in strength following that defeat; it did not "collapse."

Most of your other comments were similarly simplistic or just outright wrong. If you want to make sweeping historical statements it might help if you actually studied some history first.