Photo: Northrop Grumman
The U.S. can launch nuclear weapons if need be from land, sea, and air. Of all the platforms that can deploy such means of destruction, the B-2 Spirit must be the most alien-looking one.
The flying-wing aircraft was first taken to the sky on July 17, 1989, which means that this week it celebrated 35 years of being in the air. What better moment, than, for its maker, defense contractor Northrop Grumman, to announce a major upgrade for the plane?
The B-2 Spirit is part of the so-called Bomber Trifecta of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), alongside the B-1B Lancer and the B-52 Stratofortress. It is on its way out the door, as it will be replaced, together with the Lancer, by the upcoming B-21 Raider, but that moment is so far out into the future that upgrades on the platform are continuing at a rapid pace.
The USAF and Northrop Grumman announced a while back that the plane is the focus of modernization efforts that target its digital capabilities. The last time we heard anything on this front, in August last year, we learned of the aircraft being fitted with something called the Multi-Mission Domain (MMD) architecture.
That would be a system that allows for machine-to-machine transfer of new mission data. During the tests conducted in 2023, one of the 20 operational Spirits, the one called Spirit of Kitty Hawk, was the subject of 50 mission transfers that were beamed from the ground directly into the bomber.
And now comes news of another major milestone being reached after the Spirit got tools that will allow it to fight tomorrow's wars today.
More to the point the bomber was equipped with the "first fieldable, agile integrated functional capability." It's called Spirit Realm 1 (SR 1), and it is meant to provide "mission-critical capability upgrades."
The enhancements target the plane's communications and weapons systems and add an open mission systems architecture that not only enhances combat capability, but will also support the implementation of new software as it is developed.
Not many details about the SR 1 are public, but we do know it includes new displays and other flight hardware as well. Combined, the software and hardware should allow the Spirit to carry new weapons as soon as they are developed.
Northrop Grumman says that as a result of this upgrade the B-2 is now the first legacy nuclear platform to use the DevSecOps processes and digital toolsets developed by the Department of Defense (DoD).
Mechanically speaking not many improvements can be made to the bomber. The thing is powered by four General Electric engines capable of generating 17,300 pounds of thrust each, giving it a sub-sonic top speed and a flight ceiling of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
The B-2 Spirit is part of the so-called Bomber Trifecta of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), alongside the B-1B Lancer and the B-52 Stratofortress. It is on its way out the door, as it will be replaced, together with the Lancer, by the upcoming B-21 Raider, but that moment is so far out into the future that upgrades on the platform are continuing at a rapid pace.
The USAF and Northrop Grumman announced a while back that the plane is the focus of modernization efforts that target its digital capabilities. The last time we heard anything on this front, in August last year, we learned of the aircraft being fitted with something called the Multi-Mission Domain (MMD) architecture.
That would be a system that allows for machine-to-machine transfer of new mission data. During the tests conducted in 2023, one of the 20 operational Spirits, the one called Spirit of Kitty Hawk, was the subject of 50 mission transfers that were beamed from the ground directly into the bomber.
And now comes news of another major milestone being reached after the Spirit got tools that will allow it to fight tomorrow's wars today.
More to the point the bomber was equipped with the "first fieldable, agile integrated functional capability." It's called Spirit Realm 1 (SR 1), and it is meant to provide "mission-critical capability upgrades."
The enhancements target the plane's communications and weapons systems and add an open mission systems architecture that not only enhances combat capability, but will also support the implementation of new software as it is developed.
Not many details about the SR 1 are public, but we do know it includes new displays and other flight hardware as well. Combined, the software and hardware should allow the Spirit to carry new weapons as soon as they are developed.
Northrop Grumman says that as a result of this upgrade the B-2 is now the first legacy nuclear platform to use the DevSecOps processes and digital toolsets developed by the Department of Defense (DoD).
Mechanically speaking not many improvements can be made to the bomber. The thing is powered by four General Electric engines capable of generating 17,300 pounds of thrust each, giving it a sub-sonic top speed and a flight ceiling of 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
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