The recent use of the Air Force’s B-2 bomber in the attack on Iran’s nuclear sites has brought the stealthy multi-role heavy bomber brightly into the spotlight. The B-2 Spirit is one of America’s best, and it should be, considering it’s the single most expensive aircraft ever built, with each carrying a price tag of $2.13 billion. The B-2 is decked out with a stunning array of state-of-the-art technology (including, believe it or not, a toilet), with the development of this bizarre-looking “flying wing,” spearheaded by Northrop Grumman, beginning all the way back in the 1970s when the U.S. and Russia were still ensconced in the prickly nuances of the Cold War.
In its June 22, 2025, attack on Iran, the U.S. Air Force dropped fourteen GBU-57 Massive Ordinance Penetrators (MOPs), each weighing 30,000 pounds. It took seven B-2s to carry all the ordinance, which is a significant number considering the entire U.S. fleet only consists of 19 stealth bombers in total. However, considering that the unit price for each one is so exorbitant, it’s quite understandable why there are so few.
The public got its first look at the B-2 in November of 1988 at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, but its first public flight didn’t occur until July 1989. Still, the first B-2 (“Spirit of Missouri”) wasn’t delivered to the Air Force until December 1993. Some 32 years later, there are still only 19 in existence, and Whiteman AFB in Missouri is the only operational base for the stealthy craft.
Why does the US have so few B-2 bombers?
Initially, the U.S. Air Force wanted Northrop Grumman to build 132 B-2 bombers. However, when the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991, budget cuts unleashed by the George H. W. Bush administration substantially trimmed that down to a mere 20, with one additional plane used for experimental purposes. This massive reduction in expected production numbers caused the unit price per plane to skyrocket to over $2 billion.
In 2008, a B-2 known as the Spirit of Kansas (registration 89-0127) was stationed at Andersen AFB in the U.S. commonwealth territory of Guam. Just before a scheduled sortie, a torrential monsoon rolled in and soaked the plane. Despite running through a clean preflight check without any issues, the pilots took off and almost immediately encountered problems with the autopilot assist. The nose of the plane suddenly pulled up with an estimated G-force of 1.6 before it violently dropped back down. The maneuver caused the jet to lose much of its lift and plummet to the ground, but not before the pilots were able to eject safely.
Another incident occurred at Andersen AFB in 2010, although the U.S. government opted to spend more than $100 million and four years of repairs to make that particular B-2 flight-worthy again. In December 2022, while landing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, another B-2 “experienced an in-flight malfunction during routine operations,” according to Master Sgt. Beth Del Vecchio (via Military.com), and caught fire. In May 2024, the U.S. Air Force decided to retire this craft instead of repairing it, shrinking the fleet to 19 B-2 Spirits.
