The first phase of the Flex Strike B-2 bomber improvements passed critical design review with the Air Force in February, Northrop Grumman announced Wednesday. The upgrade package, which among various improvements, will let the B-2 carry mixed loads of munitions to diversify the kinds of targets it can hit on a sortie. “This will allow the B-2 to carry either a rotary launcher or a smart bomb rack, or both,” Northrop Grumman B-2 Manager Dave Mazur told Air Force Magazine in a recent interview. Other upgrades also give the B-2 improved capability against moving targets thanks to improvements to the radar and processor, and also sensor fusion capabilities on the bomber. A Defensive Management System improvement will take the B-2 “from a 1980s analog system to a digital system,” improving maintainability and opening the door for many more modes and growth, Mazur said. The Flex Strike upgrade consolidates a number of operational flight programs specific to certain weapons into a single OFP that manages all the B-2’s weapon carriage systems. The company is performing a three-year, $104 million engineering and manufacturing development of the upgrade. When development is complete, the upgrade will be installed on B-2s as they come through programmed depot maintenance at Northrop’s Palmdale, Calif., facility. The Air Force plans to retain the B-2 until 2058.
We looked back on the past 12 months to find the stories that resonated the most with you, our audience, and these 10 topped the list. Maybe you missed one the first time around, or perhaps you’d like to revisit a favorite.