B-2 Bomber Crash

[Ronbo]

Looks like a B-2 went down in Guam. Thankfully nobody was killed.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/23/stealth.bomber.crash.ap/index.html

[motion]

1.2 billion gone. I can only imagine why those things are so expensive. That's a lot of scratch.

[kstar]

Just imagine how many Wii consoles could have been bought for inner-city children with just one B-2.

[Don Plumley]

If the seats are black, 1st dibs. Shipping to 94952?

[Steve Carlton]

$2.8M including shipping. PayPal only.

[island911]

If only Barack Obama was Prez. He would Hope something like this wouldn't happen. ..and therefore we would still have our B-2. --not that we would ever need it.. --again, "Hope" conquers all.

[HardDrive]

You guys are killin' me. LOL.

[island911]

"1.2 billion gone. "

Just think of how many early-S's they could have bought.

[artplumber]

"So captain, we're going to start docking your pay until the equipment you destroyed is paid off."

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by island911

"1.2 billion gone. "

Just think of how many early-S's they could have bought.

At least is wasn't an Early "S"

[island911]

that's better, bvd.

[scottmandue]

Ya know if they collected the debris and sold pieces on eBay they could probably recoup the 1.2B.

[Joeaksa]

I hope that we never really need them. But if we do, the price to build the fleet will be forgotten in a heartbeat...

[KevinP73]

Originally Posted by artplumber

"So captain, we're going to start docking your pay until the equipment you destroyed is paid off."

Now you know why the Captain always goes down with the ship!

[911Rob]

$1.2 Billion? How can it cost that much?

Ah, sir...... we've got the final tally in for building the B-2, ah.... it came in at twelve hundred million."
"Ah yup, we spent a million dollars, twelve hundred times"

???

[sammyg2]

Um, I kinda disagree. The B-2 is like the battleship was in WWII, not really relevant anymore.
We can put cruise missles and bombs anywhere we want. We can drop nukes anywhere we want. we can completely dominate the air space over ANY theatre, so the ancient B-52s can do a better job that the B-2s can for less $$$.

When the B-2s were sent to kosovo they took off the from a base in Missouri, flew there and dropped the bombs, and flew all the way back. They did that because these planes are so complex and require so much maintenance that it is almost impossible to stage them strategically (119 manhours of maintenance required for every hour of flight time). To the best of my knowledge, the only two places in the world that are equipped to handle them are Whiteman air force base in Missouri and that base in Guam.
After every flight these planes require extensive maintenance, including the repair of much of the radar absorbing material.
IMO The B-2 is a remnant of the cold war and is not relevant except as a tool to maintain artificially inflated military budgets. Even during ther cold war it was only good for sabre-rattling and threatening, it's never been a practical war machine.

[island911]

Canadians must be pretty happy that we are paying for this stuff. ...eh?

[911Rob]

Happy and Grateful. Thanks!

[sammyg2]

Did I mention that if the B-2s fly in the rain some of the the radar absorbing material gets damaged and has to be replaced, requiring even more extensive maintenance between flights?

[sammyg2]