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The Great Air Force Stealth Bomber Shortage
National Security Journal ^ | 6/26/2025 | Reuben Johnson

Posted on 06/26/2025 10:51:53 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111

Recent events, including the “Operation Midnight Hammer” B-2 strike on Iran, have highlighted the urgent need for the US Air Force to acquire a much larger fleet of stealth bombers. The current force of only 19 B-2s is stretched thin. Compounding the issue, significant delays in the B-52J modernization program mean those aircraft may not be ready until 2030 or later.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalsecurityjournal.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: b2; blogpimp; bombers; china; iran; midnighthammer; russia; usairforce; w1n1

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We for sure don't have enough of these amazing planes. But I doubt we can afford an all-out push for more.
1 posted on 06/26/2025 10:51:53 AM PDT by whyilovetexas111
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To: whyilovetexas111

War pigs see dollar signs.


2 posted on 06/26/2025 10:53:19 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Democrats are the Party of anger, hate and violence.)
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To: whyilovetexas111

So, why are the broadcasting the shortage issue and number of stealth bombers we have?


3 posted on 06/26/2025 11:01:18 AM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. Psalm 33:12)
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To: whyilovetexas111

“One of the biggest mistakes we made—and that we are seeing now with the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites—is that we do not have enough of the B-2s. We only built 21 of them.”


and right now there are 100 B21 on the purchase order?

If we had built 100 b2’s we couldn’t build the 21’s now.

It all works out for good.


4 posted on 06/26/2025 11:02:38 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: PeterPrinciple

I think I read the 1st b21 will become an operational aircraft? no test beds?


5 posted on 06/26/2025 11:03:46 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: whyilovetexas111

The B2 is designed for the Cold-war soviet era, and America’s “wars of empire” - flying in to 3rd world countries, operating 3rd party air-defenses, and bombing specific targets of regime power.

its also designed to maximize profits for the Northern Virginia-DC corporations of the military industrial complex.

They would be useless in a war with Russia or China, who aren’t global powers, so don’t have a need for such capabilities - and who have leap-frogged the need for a B2-type plane with hypersonic missiles.


6 posted on 06/26/2025 11:03:49 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: stars & stripes forever; E. Pluribus Unum
War pigs see dollar signs.

We haven't exactly been going hog-wild buying dedicated bombers - the B-21 is the first new one in ~34 years.

Not that legacy defense suppliers are not money sponges at heart, and yes, they need reform, but they provide a critical function.

So, why are the broadcasting the shortage issue and number of stealth bombers we have?

Come on, the fact that we only have 19 B-2 stealth bombers is widely, widely known.

7 posted on 06/26/2025 11:07:04 AM PDT by Yossarian
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To: whyilovetexas111

National Security Journal. A subsidiary of Raytheon, Inc.


8 posted on 06/26/2025 11:09:51 AM PDT by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: whyilovetexas111
The current force of only 19 B-2s is stretched thin.

You can thank budget cutting democRATs for that. Also for the limited (178) number of F22's produced.

B-52s, B-1s, B-2s, and F-22s are all limited, IRREPLACEABLE, assets ... just like the democRATs want.

9 posted on 06/26/2025 11:09:57 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Seruzawa
National Security Journal. A subsidiary of Raytheon, Inc.

Yup. A 'concerned' article that's really just a sales pitch.
10 posted on 06/26/2025 11:20:39 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: whyilovetexas111

The only way to make A B.52 stealthy is to keep it on the ground.The j variant will not help


11 posted on 06/26/2025 11:23:31 AM PDT by Blueflag (To not carry is to choose to be defenseless.)
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To: whyilovetexas111
Compounding the issue, significant delays in the B-52J modernization program mean those aircraft may not be ready until 2030 or later.

Nevermind the upgrade, just build the current model. You can upgrade them later.

The non-DEI/non-wetback citizens would appreciate the jobs.

12 posted on 06/26/2025 11:49:23 AM PDT by ROCKLOBSTER (Celebrate: "Republicans Freed the Slaves Month")
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To: whyilovetexas111

The stealth B-52J ;-)


13 posted on 06/26/2025 11:50:31 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: whyilovetexas111

I don’t see why more of these planes are needed.

How often does an operation like this need to happen?

How much of the world is buried 300 feet down.


14 posted on 06/26/2025 11:52:03 AM PDT by ckilmer
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To: ckilmer

Maybe Three Gorges Dam is on the target list.


15 posted on 06/26/2025 11:58:49 AM PDT by xkaydet65
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To: ckilmer

“I don’t see why more of these planes are needed.”

Neither do I.

And they would be very expensive.


16 posted on 06/26/2025 12:09:20 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: whyilovetexas111

Yeah, we have plenty. Stealth is a brief window technologically, like the Zero running wild for the first year of the war, like the U-2 flying so high radar couldn’t detect it and missiles couldn’t hit it.

Stealth is a losing game. We maybe roll out a new stealth every 15 years or so. First was F-117, then B-2, then F-35 that has a slightly larger RCS than a 30 year old at that point F-117. Now we are looking at a B-21.
Stealth airframes are only marginally better with each new design.

Meanwhile, SAM radars are only limited by computing power to process what the antennae see. THAT, following Moore’s law roughly has increased SAM radars 5000 times more than the mid-70s. AI and Quantum computing makes it a dead certainty that stealth will only be “stealth” for another decade or so.

We have all we need. Sounds like “National Security Journal” is probably filled with glossy Northrup-Grumman ads.


17 posted on 06/26/2025 1:00:25 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI….There’s really not much to)
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To: DesertRhino

and what they don’t see when they compute what they should see.


18 posted on 06/26/2025 1:34:37 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (First, I was a clinger, then deplorable, now I'm garbage. Feel the love? )
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To: ckilmer

“I don’t see why more of these planes are needed.”

How many times have they been used in combat? Given the realities of warfare today, 19 may be all we really need.


19 posted on 06/26/2025 2:12:44 PM PDT by beef (The pendulum will not swing back. It will snap back. Hard.)
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To: NonValueAdded

Exactly.... they can see a hole in the sky where they should see the sky. It’s getting very crazy out there with the explosion in processing power.


20 posted on 06/26/2025 2:13:43 PM PDT by DesertRhino (2016 Star Wars, 2020 The Empire Strikes Back, 2025... RETURN OF THE JEDI….There’s really not much to)
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