Ten years ago this month, six B-2s from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., struck the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, kick-starting Operation Enduring Freedom. One of the B-2s in that initial wave flew a 44.3-hour mission, still the longest bombing mission in aviation history, according to the wing. More than a decade later, some of those same B-2 pilots remain involved in the aircraft’s conventional and nuclear strategic deterrent mission, said wing officials. And, the B-2s continue to be the leading edge when the nation needs them. Earlier this year, in March, B-2s took off from Whiteman to drop bombs on former Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in Libya, again opening the doors to a conflict, this time NATO’s air war. (Whiteman report by SrA. Cody H. Ramirez)
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…