There are many kinds of military aircraft currently in service, but they all have one thing in common: they follow the general, unspoken design rules of their breeds, hence all of them look more or less the same. Except for the B-2 Spirit.
Born in the 1980s, this member of the American Bomber Trifecta (which it forms alongside the B-1B Lancer and the B-52 Stratofortress) is instantly recognizable thanks to its flying wing shape. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) needed it to be drawn like this to be able to incorporate low-observable technologies, while presenting “reduced infrared, acoustic, electromagnetic, visual and radar signatures.”
The design makes it, just like it happened with the F-117 Nighthawk, look more like an alien spacecraft than a human-made machine. And here we have two of them, looking as if they’ve been captured by Earth forces, being escorted to a secret base like in some deleted scene from Independence Day.
The pics show in fact scenes from a Bomber Task Force mission that took place at the beginning of August. It involved B-2 Spirits flown by the USAF (America is the only country that has them), and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) EA-18G Growlers. Leading the formation over the Australian coast is an E-7A Wedgetail.
“Bilateral training missions enhance joint and multilateral readiness, allowing U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to respond to any potential crisis in the region alongside Allies and partners in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), who released the pics, once again taking aim at China and its recent actions off the coasts of Taiwan.
America has just 20 B-2 Spirits in its arsenal, each of them capable of bringing "massive firepower to bear, in a short time, anywhere on the globe through previously impenetrable defenses," the USAF brags.
The design makes it, just like it happened with the F-117 Nighthawk, look more like an alien spacecraft than a human-made machine. And here we have two of them, looking as if they’ve been captured by Earth forces, being escorted to a secret base like in some deleted scene from Independence Day.
The pics show in fact scenes from a Bomber Task Force mission that took place at the beginning of August. It involved B-2 Spirits flown by the USAF (America is the only country that has them), and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) EA-18G Growlers. Leading the formation over the Australian coast is an E-7A Wedgetail.
“Bilateral training missions enhance joint and multilateral readiness, allowing U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to respond to any potential crisis in the region alongside Allies and partners in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said the Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), who released the pics, once again taking aim at China and its recent actions off the coasts of Taiwan.
America has just 20 B-2 Spirits in its arsenal, each of them capable of bringing "massive firepower to bear, in a short time, anywhere on the globe through previously impenetrable defenses," the USAF brags.