One of the Air Force’s B-2A stealth bombers, The Spirit of California, performed a flyover of the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena Calif., on New Year’s Day. Here’s the link to a video of the flyover, which is one of the public events in 2013 that the Air Force is using to celebrate the 20th anniversary year of the B-2, according to service officials. It was on Dec. 17, 1993, that the first operational B-2, The Spirit of Missouri, arrived at Whiteman AFB, Mo. The base is home to the 509th Bomb Wing, which operates the 20-aircraft B-2 fleet. (See also link to B-2 video from Los Angeles’ KTLA New Station 5.)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…