Which is the better bomber- the B-52 or the B-2

I expect the Airforce putting more money to improving the B-2. Once they have improved the B-2 fleet, what will happen to the B-2's that are in service right now? Are they just going to produce more B-2's or upgrade the B-2's?

You're not going to see more B-2s built. It would cost too much to start the line again. Any improvements made for the B-2s will be made for ALL the B-2s that are in the inventory. There are and probably always will only be 21 of them.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
You're not going to see more B-2s built. It would cost too much to start the line again.

Based on that assumtion, do you believe there will ever be another bomber built in the USA?

Starting a production line for anything costs money. It really dosen't matter if it's more B-2's or a brand new bomber. Actually I think restarting production for the B-2 would be one of the more cost-effective options, as the R&D phaze of the B-2 program is done and paid for.

Tim

If they have to restart the line, then the cost of the B-2s would probably be HIGHER than they were at the end of production. They'd add the cost of restarting the line to the cost of each bomber. Obviously there will be other bombers built, but once a line shuts down the costs of restarting generally keep them from doing it, no matter what the plane is.

You might look up the history of the U-2. The "R" model was design and built Years after the origional line was shut down.

Second, I'm aware that restart costs are high. My point was that the Restart costs would be LOWER that the R&D + Production for a brand New design.

Tim

Do you think that they will find a more cost effective way to produce the B-2?

Originally posted by galm 1
Do you think that they will find a more cost effective way to produce the B-2?

To be honest, yes I do! When the B-2 first came out everything on it was brand new and cutting edge. Northrop redefined state-of-the -art. It has now been over a decade since the first flight of the B-2. In that time Northrop and the Air Force haven't sat around doing nothing. Research and development have continued and expanded. Thing that once costed a fortune have since come down in price. For one thing I think the price of producing the B-2 has already dropped as Composite Materials are not as costly any more.

Scoundly, the B-2 has a lot of advanced computers in it that were cutting edge at the time. If they use state-of the-art systems that already exist, I bet they could save OVER $400 Million easily. Plus a new B-2 would IMHO have a lot less of a maintance requirement because of how much we've learned about Stealth Technology since the Origional B-2A's were built in the 1980's.

Tim

I was watching the 10 greatest bombers on the Military channel. Guess what the number 1 bomber in the world is... Come on... guess...

It is the B-52 bomber!!!

Guess what was number 10... the B-2

The reason why the B-2 was number 10 and not 1 was because of the 2.2 BILLION dollar price tag.

My 2 cents worth... Old and antiquated it may be, but which aeroplane get's the call every time there is a crises ?

The B-52.

I am curious why the C-17 is not developed as a low cost follow on to the B-52 for a conventional bombing role. With that high wing and huge volume, there is room for two huge bomb bays either side of the main undercarriage, or even room for a rotary launcher either side.