It is among the U.S. Air Force’s most finite resources, but the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is still growing in capabilities, and it’s an aircraft America is happy to allow an ally to use.

A long-standing exchange program that has seen USAF personnel trade places with those from the Royal Air Force was extended to the B-2 in 2004.

The offer to open up the secretive B-2 mission to a key ally was made by then-President George W. Bush in an e-mail to then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Among the achievements of the first British pilot, Sqn. Ldr. David Arthurton, was piloting the first B-2 to land in Australia. Beside him in the cockpit was Brig. Gen. Robert Wheeler, who is now commander of the 509th Bomb Wing here and in charge of B-2 operations.

“It really is a huge deal to be involved with this program,” says Sqn. Ldr. Jon Killerby, the second RAF pilot to fly the B-2. “With the Joint Strike Fighter venture, this is a great opportunity for us to get our foot in what they call the ‘Stealth Stink.’ Getting guys involved in stealth from an early point will hopefully pay dividends.”

The third RAF pilot to fly the B-2, Flt. Lt. Adam Curd, recently completed his training.

Unlike other USAF/RAF exchanges, where incoming and outgoing RAF pilots overlap for only a few days, Killerby and Curd spent several months at Whiteman AFB. This means the B-2 pilot cadre—around 80 pilots are qualified in the aircraft—remains at full strength. Despite its location in the middle of America, Whiteman is very much a front-line base.

The perpetual high state of readiness was confirmed in October when the base scored an “excellent” rating following a 12-day Nuclear Operational Readiness Inspection (NORI) conducted by the inspector general of Air Combat Command. NORI is not a formality. During DTI’s visit to Whiteman, news broke of the dismissal of the wing commander of Minot AFB, N.D., following failure of a concurrent inspection.

The number of B-2s Whiteman fielded to pass the inspection is classified, but DTI understands that of the available aircraft, more than half took to the air during NORI, a high proportion.

Tracking the fleet can be difficult. One B-2, tail number 82-1068, is used as a test bed for upgrades and improvements, and is based at Edwards AFB, Calif. At any one time, two others are usually in manufacturer Northrop Grumman’s workshops in Palmdale, Calif., and at least two more are undergoing work in the maintenance shop at Whiteman.

Wheeler, a B-2 and B-52 pilot whose recent career has seen him alternate between Whiteman and Barksdale AFB, La., believes the size of the wing does not create inherent difficulties.

“[Barksdale] is almost four-and-a-half times bigger, but the strategic issues from a base perspective are the same,” he says. “It’s people and parts—getting the right trained people and making sure they have the right parts at the right time.”

And those parts are getting more complex, and more capable. As well as a raft of radar and communication improvements that will turn the B-2 into a node for stealth platforms in battlespace (DTI November 2008, p. 41) and upgrade the existing Block 30 functional drop P4.2 through P5.2 aircraft to P6, work is proceeding on integrating Boeing’s 30,000-lb. Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) and the forthcoming Small Diameter Bomb II, which Boeing/Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are competing to build.

“The capabilities of this airplane are just being realized,” says Ken Gallagher, Northrop’s Whiteman site manager, who expects the MOP integration to proceed this year after a flight-test program of six months. In the near future, “with Small Diameter Bomb II and mixed payloads, I can carry bunker busters in the right bay and 100-plus Small Diameter Bombs that are launch-and-forget against moving targets in the left bay,” Gallagher says. “This will become a true hunter-killer in denied-access airspace.”

Photo: USAF