The American aviation crisis is forcing the Air Force to literally return from landfills bombers built in the middle of the last century. But the “revolutionary” cars will soon be scrapped.
This is stated in the material of the American agency “Associated Press”.
“I think it makes sense to see the B-2 as a possible candidate for retirement”, – said an American pilot who flew 14 years at the controls of a B-2 from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
The B-2 is a heavy strategic bomber developed by Northrop Grumman. It was the first aircraft to use a flying wing design. He also uses Stealth technology. The cost of one B-2 is a whopping $2 billion. Despite this, it is the most vulnerable in a potential conflict with Russia or China.
Developed in the strictest secrecy, the B-2 was supposed to become a revolutionary weapon at the end of the last century, capable of bypassing the best Soviet air defense systems. But the Soviet Union collapsed, and the B-2 lost its relevance as soon as it was taken into service.
The debut of this bomber fell on the war in Kosovo. It was the B-2 that was used by the US Air Force for the infamous bombing raids on Serbia. It was he who then struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people, which undermined US-China relations.
The viability of the B-2 suffers from the fact that the US Air Force currently only has 20 such bombers out of 21 built during production. This leads to a shortage of spare parts, and the maintenance of the aircraft is too expensive. As a consequence, the B-2 does indeed become the first candidate for cancellation, which cannot be said about the B-52.
The B-52 strategic bomber is often referred to by American aviators as “the big ugly fat guy”. It was developed in the middle of the last century by an airplane, but, according to AP, it will be used 100 years after its creation. This is confirmed by the fact that in recent years, the US Air Force has twice returned long-decommissioned B-52s from an aircraft graveyard in Arizona.
It was expected that the B-2 would be in service until at least 2058, but they could be written off in the coming years. The Pentagon expects to replace the B-2 with a promising B-21. True, the newest bomber will be fully utilized no earlier than in 10 years. In this regard, the B-52 and do not think to retire. Moreover, they plan to equip it with new technologies so that a bomber built in the 1950s can fly in the 2050s.
News Front has previously reported on the crisis in American aviation. This is due to the reduction in monetary subsidies from the state budget. This will lead to the fact that a third of the B-1 “Lancer” bombers will be decommissioned in 2021.