Spirited Away

At the beginning of the project, two designs competed — the B-2 design put forth by Northrup Grumman and Boeing, and another design proposed by Lockheed Martin and Rockwell International. The Northrup and Boeing design won out in 1981 and the B-2’s production began throughout the 1980s. The aircraft was first unveiled to the public in 1988. A public unveiling of a top-secret stealth aircraft might seem counterproductive until you consider that even with the knowledge that the US Air Force possessed such aircraft, adversaries could still not see them coming.

Meet the Photographer: Craig Murray Craig captured these incredible on-the-ground pictures using a Canon R5 and Canon RF 100-500 lens combination. “I’ve seen some amazing jets since catching the ‘aviation bug’ as a kid, and the Northrop B-2 Spirit is certainly a highlight,” he said. “Never did I expect to see six over the course  of four months here in south-east Queensland — that’s over a quarter of all the B-2s ever built. In the 23 years I have submitted images to Australian Aviation, this is easily the coolest set I’ve ever had the privilege to send through for publication.”

How the B-2 stays under the radar

What exactly is it that makes the B-2 capable of evading detection? The answer is fairly complicated, with several specifics of the stealth technology remaining classified to this day. Despite the hush-hush on some of the more technical specifics, the general design is well known. The B-2 possesses no flat surfaces, which prevents radar signals from accurately ‘bouncing’ off the aircraft to provide an accurate location. The engines of the aircraft were also specially designed to be hidden within the wings to conceal the induction fans and use special openings to hide exhaust signatures. The B-2 also has an extensive onboard cooling system that reduces emissions and keeps the heat down to limit infrared tracking of the aircraft.

Further, the aircraft was designed to limit engine noise as much as possible, making it disturbingly quiet for an aircraft of its size with some spectators even reporting they hear each other clearly as the aircraft flew overhead. Finally, the aircraft is covered in radar absorbing black ‘iron ball paint’ which contains microscopic iron spheres that absorb radar wave’s energy as heat. The black paint also provides the traditional benefits that the colour has provided to unscrupulous individuals and those attempting to avoid detection at night for centuries.

The man behind the design

Aside from the Jack Northrop’s early concept work on a stealth design known as the YB-49, the birth of the B-2 Spirit bomber concept originated from Armenian-American aircraft designer Hal Markarian. Markarian crafted a sketch in 1979 which would go on to be the inspiration for the modern design of the B-2, building on Jack Northrop’s original 1947 YB-49 design. During the early development of the aircraft, Markarian worked as the B-2 program’s project manager, heading up a team consisting of prominent stealth tech experts Irv Waaland and John Cashen alongside aerodynamics expert Hans Grellman and Richard C. Sherrer. The team was responsible for the bulk of the B-2’s unique design and construction.

A high price to pay

The high-tech stealth capabilities of the B-2 do not come cheap, however. The B-2 holds the title of the most expensive aircraft ever built, with each plane costing $737 million dollars baseline, rising to a total price of $2.1 billion when development time and spare parts are factored in.

The amount of maintenance required to keep the aircraft operational also produces eye-watering flight costs, with each hour of flight time requiring 119 hours of maintenance costing a total of $135,000 per hour of flight time. The original development project of the aircraft had cost $23 billion by 1989. Initially, the US government planned to build and field 132 of the aircraft, with the number shorn down to 75 and then to just 20 in 1992. The B-2 suffered from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Originally designed for strategic nuclear bombing missions deep into the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War in 1991 raised awkward questions about the need for ultra-expensive long-range strategic nuclear stealth bombers.

The B-2 was ultimately retooled to fit a more conventional purpose, being fitted with conventional bombing payloads and subsequently becoming the first US bomber to utilise GPS-guided ‘Joint Direct Attack Munition’ (JDAM) bombs which saw widespread use in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in the 2000s.

Mission history

Once suitably equipped with more conventional armaments and officially adopted into service with the US Air Force, the B-2 Spirit partook in its first official operation in 1999, partaking in the NATO bombing campaign in the Kosovo War under the banner of Operation Allied Force. Despite accounting for less than 1% of the total missions flown, the B-2 Spirit was responsible for destroying 33% of the targets identified within the first eight weeks of the operation. The B-2 has also seen service in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom; in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom; and in Libya as a part of Operation Odyssey Dawn.

Over the course of its deployments, the B-2 has taken part in several particularly controversial missions. During Operation Enduring Freedom, six B-2 Spirits flew a 44-hour mission, becoming the first US combat aircraft to enter Afghan airspace. At the 44-hour mark of this mission, the aircraft stopped for a 45-minute crew and service change with the engines kept running before returning to Missouri for a total mission time of more than 70 hours — breaking the record for the longest aerial combat mission in history.

The B-2 was also involved in a major diplomatic incident during the Kosovo War after it dropped 5 guided JDAM bombs over the city of Belgrade, which struck the Chinese Embassy, killing three Chinese journalists and destroying the embassy. The target had been mistakenly identified as a Yugoslav military target by the CIA, who provided the bombing coordinates and instructions for the mission.

Spying Setbacks

In true Cold War fashion, the B-2 has had its fair share of cloak-and-dagger controversies during both the development and active deployment of the aircraft. The first incident occurred in 1984 during the B-2’s development, when a Northrop employee was arrested for attempting to sell classified B-2 information to the Soviet Union. An aerospace engineer at Northrop who had been working on the development of the B-2, Thomas Cavanagh was arrested in 1984 at a hotel in California after agreeing to meet with FBI agents posing as Soviet spies. Cavanagh was offered $25,000 to sell the classified technology and was heavily laden with debt at the time, which is speculated as the reason for his espionage. He was released from prison on the 1 March 2001 despite receiving a life sentence.

Even after the Cold War had ended and the B-2 was in service, tales of espionage continued to swirl around the secretive aircraft. The second espionage incident came in 2005, when Noshir Gowadia was arrested on suspicion of selling classified information regarding the B-2 to China, as well to individuals in Israel, Switzerland, and Germany. Gowadia was one of the principal designers of the B-2’s propulsion system and claimed that he was behind the stealth tech protecting the B-2 from heat-seeking missiles. Gowadia set up his own consulting firm after his time at Northrop Grumman and engaged in military consulting with many foreign countries. As part of his consulting process, Gowadia showed at least eighteen foreign countries documents related to classified portions of the stealth technology. Gowadia was arrested in 2005, convicted on 14 out of 17 charges laid against him in 2010, and was ultimately sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2011.

A show of force

The deployment of the four B-2 stealth bombers to Australia by the US is representative of growing tensions within the region, particularly between the two super-powers of China and the US Australia occupies a difficult geopolitical position, being one of the US longest running and staunchest allies while also being situated in close proximity to China with exceedingly significant trade links to the Asian nation.

Specifications: First flight: July 17, 1989
Classification: Bomber
Span: 52.42m (172 feet)
Height: 5.18m (17 feet)
Length: 21.03m (69 feet)
Gross weight: 152,633.8kg (336,500 pounds)
Cruising speed: High subsonic
Range: 11,112km (6,000 nautical miles without refuel) — 18520km (10,000 nautical miles with one refuel)
Ceiling: 15,240m (50,000 feet)
Power: Four 19,000-pound-thrust F118-GE engines
Accommodation: 2 crew
Armament: More than 40,000-pound nuclear or conventional weapon payload
Fleet: 20 Based: Whiteman Air Force Base Missouri

Recent incidents have highlighted this growing tension, including a RAAF P-8 Posiedon aircraft involved in an aerial incident with a Chinese J-16 who performed an aggressive and “dangerous manoeuvre.”  The event came after Beijing declared RAAF flights throughout the South China Sea as a ‘threat’ to its sovereignty and security in June.

China has also ramped up its rhetoric regarding Taiwan, with Xi Xinping warning President Biden against “playing with fire” in respect to the US’ Taiwan policy. Bilateral relations regarding the controversial island were enflamed after US Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, announced a plan to visit Taiwan later this year.

Australia is also grappling with an increasingly expansionist Chinese diplomatic agenda in the Pacific Islands, with the Solomon Islands announcing a security agreement with China, and Kiribati withdrawing from the Pacific Islands Forum to form closer ties to China.

The extended deployment of the B-2 Spirit bombers to Australia was just the latest in a series of increased US military deployments. Earlier this year, the US permanently stationed 2,200 troops in the Northern Territory. In 2021, the US, Australia, and Britain announced the formation of the AUKUS treaty, a strategic trilateral security pact focusing on the Indo-Pacific region. The treaty includes the provision of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, and the US divulging its naval nuclear strategic information to Australia. The US has only ever divulged that information to one other single ally, the UK, in a bilateral nuclear alliance that spanned the entire Cold War.