B-2 Stealth Bomber At War

30 Years Since the B-2's First Flight

Five Air Campaigns Since 1999

Bomber Task Forces and Nuclear Deterrence

B-2s are at the center of war plans, for every theater of operations around the globe. 

B-2 Stealth Bomber At War  highlights twenty years of missions as seen by pilots and the team of the Air Force's 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB.  The story begins with the B-2's first flight on July 17, 1989.  Ten years later, the B-2 went to war for the first time in NATO's Operation Allied Force, introducing precision, all-weather stealth attack in the 78-day air campaign.  In 2001, a B-2 crew set the record for a combat mission at 44.3 hourse to strike targets in Afghanistan.  In 2003, B-2s slammed Iraqi airfields and air defenses dropping over a million and a half pounds of ordnance during the first combat operatiosn phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Precision strikes on Libya in 2011 and again in 2017 continued dynamic targeting in combat missions.  WIth just 20 B-2s in the fleet, the stealth bombers sustain nuclear deterrence and often carry out their unique brand of bomber diplomacy in shows of force worldwide.