THE B2 "SPIRIT"
______A Cold War weapon, the U.S. Air Force's B2 stealth bomber is an aircraft that can get in and blast its target without the enemy even realizing it's there. Of course, the technology that makes it "invisible" also makes it pretty darn expensive.
______The B2 was developed in the 1980s as a strategic nuclear bomber. It could fly to the Soviet Union (at subsonic speeds) and back unrefueled, which is just as well because airborne tankers would NOT have been invisible to radar and might have given away the B2 Spirit's position. The aircraft used special materials and a flying wing design that minimized its radar cross-section. However, no stealth aircraft is truly invisible to radar; the range at which it can be picked up is merely reduced.
______That reduction makes a big difference. Since the Soviet Union went away the B2 has been used successfully as a conventional bomber in Kosovo, Afghanistan and, most recently, in Iraq. It is used to hit important targets that are defended by relatively sophisticated air defenses, defenses that rely heavily on radar.
______The cost of each aircraft? Over $1,000,000,000, making it the most expensive aircraft to see combat, unless the Germans ever flew a gold-embossed zeppelin over London. That comes out to $3,000 per pound. The $20,000,000 that the B2 fleet cost to build is the equivelent to the entire GNP of certain countries in Africa and Asia.
______The B2 continues to fly, and will undoubtably be used again if al-Qaida makes another stand somewhere.
HOW WAS THIS BADGE EARNED 
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