The Northrop B-2 Spirit is a flying-wing stealth bomber flown only by the U.S. Air Force, and at about $2.1 billion per aircraft including development, it is the most expensive aircraft ever built. Only 21 were built, and 19 remain in service at Whiteman AFB, Missouri. Developed by Northrop Grumman.
The Northrop B-2 Spirit is a flying-wing stealth bomber flown only by the U.S. Developed by Northrop Grumman.
Photo: Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III, USAF / US DoD photo (public domain)See Specifications for full detail.
The Northrop B-2 Spirit is an American flying-wing stealth bomber built by Northrop, now Northrop Grumman, for the U.S. Air Force. It is a two-crew, four-engine heavy bomber designed to penetrate defended airspace, and it carries conventional or nuclear weapons, including the 30,000 lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator. [1] [2]
The B-2 first flew on 17 July 1989. The end of the Cold War cut a planned fleet of 132 to 21, and the average cost of about $2.1 billion per aircraft including development makes it the most expensive aircraft ever built. All operational aircraft are based at Whiteman AFB, Missouri. It first flew in combat over Kosovo in 1999, and on 21 June 2025 seven B-2s dropped 14 GBU-57s on Iran's Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites. Two aircraft have been lost, leaving 19. [1] [3] [4]
The B-2's layout goes back to Jack Northrop's flying wings of the 1940s. The piston-engined XB-35 first flew on 25 June 1946, and the jet-powered YB-49 on 21 October 1947, with the same 172 ft span as the later B-2. The second YB-49 crashed on 5 June 1948, killing Capt. Glen Edwards and four others, and the YB-49 programme was cancelled on 15 March 1950. [5] [6]
The Air Force's Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) competition matched a curved flying wing from Northrop and Boeing, code-named Senior Ice, against Senior Peg from Lockheed and Rockwell. Northrop was selected on 20 October 1981. Shortly before his death on 18 February 1981, Jack Northrop was cleared to see the design and hold a scale model, and he reportedly wrote: 'Now I know why God has kept me alive for 25 years.' [1] [7]
In the mid-1980s the Air Force added a low-level terrain-following role, which delayed the first flight by two years and added about $1 billion to the programme. The B-2 was rolled out at Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale, on 22 November 1988, with guests kept from seeing the rear of the aircraft, and first flew from Palmdale to Edwards AFB on 17 July 1989. The first operational delivery came on the 90th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight and the 49th anniversary of the activation of the 509th Composite Group, the unit that dropped the atomic bombs in 1945 and whose successor, the 509th Bomb Wing, flies the B-2. [1] [8]
The planned buy fell from 165 to 132 by the mid-1980s, then to 75, and in his 1992 State of the Union address President George H. W. Bush announced it would stop at 20. In 1996 the Clinton administration paid nearly $500 million to bring a test aircraft up to operational standard, making 21. The programme cost $44.75 billion, an average of $2.13 billion per aircraft in 1996 including development, testing and production; procurement alone came to $737 million per aircraft in 1997 dollars. The first operational aircraft, Spirit of Missouri, reached Whiteman on 17 December 1993, and the Air Force declared initial operational capability on 1 April 1997. [1] [9]
The B-2 is a tailless flying wing 172 ft across and 69 ft long, with four 17,300 lbf General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans buried in the wing. Boundary-layer air is bled away below the intakes and mixed with the exhaust, and the radar cross-section is reportedly about 0.1 square metres. The radar-absorbent coating needs temperature- and humidity-controlled hangars, which cost about $5 million each and were not in the original plan, and portable B-2 Shelter Systems when the aircraft deploy. Every seven years the coating is stripped with crystallised wheat starch so the structure underneath can be inspected. [1] [9]
A quadruplex fly-by-wire system controls the aircraft. Four pairs of trailing-edge surfaces handle pitch and roll, and with no fin, yaw comes from split brake-rudders and differential thrust. The two crew sit on ACES II ejection seats. The two internal bays are officially rated at 40,000 lb and can carry about 60,000 lb in practice: eighty 500 lb JDAMs, two GBU-57s, JASSM cruise missiles or 16 B61 or B83 nuclear bombs. A 2010 estimate put the cost of operating it at up to $135,000 per flight hour. [1] [2]
The B-2's first combat mission was on 24 March 1999, in NATO's Operation Allied Force over Kosovo. Flying round trips of about 30 hours from Whiteman, B-2s flew 50 of NATO's 34,000 sorties but destroyed 33 percent of the selected targets in the first eight weeks. On 7 May 1999 a B-2 dropped five JDAMs on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which had been wrongly identified as a military target, killing three people and injuring 20. On 7 October 2001 Spirit of America flew 44.3 hours from Whiteman to Afghanistan and on to Diego Garcia, the longest B-2 combat mission. [1] [10] [11]
In all, B-2s flew 45 sorties over Kosovo and dropped 656 JDAMs. Over Iraq in 2003, B-2s flew 49 sorties and dropped 583 JDAMs. Three B-2s dropped 40 bombs on a Libyan airfield in March 2011, and on 18 January 2017 B-2s dropped 108 500 lb JDAMs on ISIS camps near Sirte, Libya, on a 33-hour mission. On 16 October 2024 B-2s struck five underground weapons stores in Yemen, staging through RAAF Tindal in Australia. [1] [12]
On 21 June 2025, in Operation Midnight Hammer, seven B-2s flew a 37-hour round trip from Whiteman to Iran while other B-2s flew west over the Pacific towards Guam as decoys. The outbound leg took about 18 hours, and more than 125 aircraft took part in the operation. Six dropped 12 GBU-57s on the Fordow enrichment plant and the seventh dropped two on Natanz. It was the first combat use of the GBU-57 and, according to Gen. Dan Caine, the largest B-2 operational strike in US history. [1] [13] [14]
Operation Epic Fury, the US and Israeli air campaign against Iran, began on 28 February 2026. On 1 March four B-2s from Whiteman struck hardened ballistic-missile facilities with 2,000 lb GBU-31 bombs, then diverted to Dyess AFB, Texas, because of weather. Photographs of B-2s heading to Iran in March showed tape over panels on the wing leading edges, and one aircraft carried 15 mission markings. [15] [1] [16]
Two B-2s have been lost. On 23 February 2008 Spirit of Kansas crashed on take-off from Andersen AFB, Guam, after moisture in three of its 24 air-data sensors gave false readings; both crew ejected, and the $1.4 billion loss is the most expensive aircraft crash on record. The fleet returned to flight on 15 April 2008, after 53 days. On 10 December 2022 Spirit of Hawaii made an emergency landing at Whiteman after a hydraulic coupling failed, and it caught fire when the left gear collapsed; the fleet was grounded until 18 May 2023. In May 2024 the Air Force confirmed it would not be repaired, leaving 19 aircraft. Spirit of Washington, damaged by an engine fire at Andersen in 2010, and Spirit of Georgia, whose gear collapsed at Whiteman in 2021, were both repaired. [17] [1] [4] [18] [19]
The B-2's successor is the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, another flying wing. Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, is the first B-21 base, and on 12 September 2024 the Air Force named Whiteman as the second. In April 2026 the Air Force said the B-1 would fly until 2037 but set no retirement date for the B-2, planning $1.35 billion of B-2 modernisation from fiscal 2027 to 2031. That work follows Spirit Realm 1, an open mission systems and cockpit display upgrade revealed in July 2024. [20] [21] [22]
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit has a top speed of ~547 kn (~630 mph / 1,010 km/h).
A total of 21 were built.
Yes, the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is still in service.
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit first flew on July 17th 1989.
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit has a range of 6,900 mi (11,100 km, 6,000 nmi).
The operator is US Air Force.
Unfortunately, you won’t find the B-2 Spirit here. Operational B-2 missions fly dark - no ADS-B position for consumer trackers. Very occasionally a training sortie around Whiteman AFB shows up on Mode-S with a MYTEE or DEATH callsign, but it's rare enough to be an event in the tracking community when it happens.
| Performance | |
| Max Speed | ~547 kn (~630 mph / 1,010 km/h) |
|---|---|
| Cruise SpeedCruise Speed — The economical speed an aircraft sustains for the bulk of a flight - lower than maximum speed, chosen for the best balance of time and fuel burn. Glossary → | ~560 mph at high altitude |
| RangeRange — How far an aircraft can fly without refuelling. Quoted figures vary with payload, speed and reserves - see also ferry range and combat radius. Glossary → | 6,900 mi |
| Service CeilingService Ceiling — The highest altitude at which an aircraft can still climb at a useful rate (typically 100 ft/min). Above it, the air is too thin to keep climbing meaningfully. Glossary → | 50,000 ft |
| Airframe & Weight | |
| Wingspan | 172 ft 0 in |
| Length | 69 ft 0 in |
| Height | 17 ft 0 in |
| WeightMTOW — Maximum Take-Off Weight - the heaviest an aircraft is certified to be at the start of its take-off run, including fuel, crew, payload and the aircraft itself. Glossary → | empty: ~158,000 lb; MTOW: 336,500 lb |
| Power & Payload | |
| Engines | 4 x General Electric F118-GE-100 non-afterburning turbofans, 17,300 lbf thrust each, buried in the wing with S-duct inlets to hide the fan faces from radar |
| ArmamentArmament — The weapons an aircraft can carry: guns, missiles, bombs and rockets, whether mounted internally, on wing hardpoints, or in bomb bays. Glossary → | Internal only (external stores would wreck the stealth): JDAM series, JASSM/JASSM-ER cruise missiles, GBU-28 and GBU-57 penetrators, B61-7/-11/-12 and B83 nuclear bombs |
| Crew | 2 (pilot and mission commander), with provision for a third seat |
| CapacityPayload — Everything an aircraft is carrying that isn't the aircraft or its fuel: passengers, cargo, or weapons. Payload and fuel usually trade off against each other. Glossary → | 40,000+ lb (18,000+ kg) of ordnance in two internal bays - up to 80 x 500 lb JDAMs, or two 30,000 lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, plus B61/B83 nuclear weapons |
| Program & Service | |
| Manufacturer | Northrop Grumman |
| Origin | United States |
| First Flight | July 17th 1989 |
| Service Entry | January 1st 1997 |
| Number Built | 21 |
| Unit Cost | ~$2.13B per unit in 2026, $737M when production started in 1997 |
9 notable events involving the B-2 Spirit, 1999 to 2026. 3 deaths are recorded across the 5 of these with a figure listed. Curated rather than exhaustive.
B-2s flew from Whiteman AFB to Serbia and back on the first night of Operation Allied Force, a round trip of about 30 hours.
A B-2 dropped five JDAMs on the Chinese embassy, which had been wrongly identified as a military target. Three people were killed and 20 injured.
United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade - Wikipedia
Spirit of America flew 44.3 hours from Whiteman to Afghanistan and on to Diego Garcia, the longest B-2 combat mission.
Spirit of Kansas crashed moments after take-off from Andersen AFB. Moisture in three of its 24 air-data sensors gave false airspeed readings, causing an uncommanded pitch-up and stall. Both crew ejected, and the loss cost about $1.4 billion.
An engine fire on the ground at Andersen AFB badly damaged Spirit of Washington. It was repaired on Guam and at Palmdale and returned to service in December 2013.
Spirit of Georgia's left main gear collapsed on landing after a training flight, caused by weak lock-link springs and cracked hydraulic connections. Nobody was hurt; the aircraft was repaired for $23.7 million and returned to Whiteman on 6 November 2025.
Spirit of Hawaii made an emergency landing at Whiteman after a hydraulic coupling failed; its left gear collapsed and it caught fire on the runway. The fleet was grounded until May 2023, and in May 2024 the Air Force confirmed the aircraft would not be repaired.
Seven B-2s flew a 37-hour round trip from Whiteman and dropped 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators on Iran's Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites, the weapon's first combat use.
Four B-2s struck hardened ballistic-missile facilities in Iran with GBU-31 bombs and diverted to Dyess AFB because of weather.
| Block 10 / 20 / 30 | The three delivery standards. Block 10 aircraft carried only gravity nuclear weapons and Mk 84 bombs and were used mainly for training; Block 20 added conventional weapons and the GPS-aided GAM; Block 30 added improved radar modes, terrain following, JDAM and JSOW. The first Block 30, Spirit of Pennsylvania, was delivered on 7 August 1997, and earlier aircraft were converted from July 1995. |
| Modernisation (2008-present) | Upgrades to the fleet in place of new variants. New Raytheon AESA antennas for the AN/APQ-181 radar were ordered for $468 million in December 2008, the EHF satellite communications upgrade redesigned the onboard computing, and the Defensive Management System upgrade was dropped in 2020 in favour of new cockpit displays. Spirit Realm 1, revealed in July 2024, added open mission systems, with $1.35 billion planned for 2027-31. |
Source: Air & Space Forces Magazine
Source: Simple Flying
Source: Air & Space Forces Magazine
Source: Axios Kansas City
Source: TWZ (The War Zone)
Numbered as cited in the Overview article. Click a reference to see where it's used.
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