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Military Grounds Stealth Bomber Fleet

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the take-it-out-of-their-paychecks dept.

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.'"

2 of 430 comments (clear)

  1. Stealth? by lobiusmoop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe I'm being naive again, but what is the point of designing an untrackable aircraft and then telling the whole world its fleet status? Why is the B2 in the news at all? Or should I be reaching for a tinfoil hat?

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    1. Re:Stealth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mr. Ben Rich, the former head of Lockheed Skunk Works, the 'father of Stealth' and who has now sadly passed away made some interesting comments just before he died. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich ]

      One of which is:

      "We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity..... anything you can imagine we already know how to do."

      I find it really hard to believe this.. but this is coming from someone with a huge reputation and know-how. I guess I should try to pick up an 'I want to believe poster' somewhere. ;)

      But you can be sure something is available which is not visible for the general public. Why can you be sure?

      They've retired the SR71 Blackbird, supposedly because 'we now have satellites'. The thing is a) satellites are not always over the location you're interested in at the correct time. and b) everyone can determine the orbit of the satellite and hide under a camel or two if the thing flies over.

      I would estimate the chance that they solely depend on satellites now to be small. But I'm not an expert in any of these fields, so do not take my word for it. :)