The U.S. Air Force returned to service a B-2 bomber that received serious damage in an accident that occurred back in 2021 as recently reported in a service press release, B-2 Spirit of Georgia (tail number 89-0129) returned to service on November 6 this year, so as of today the U.S. Air Force has 19 B-2 Spirit aircraft in service, and the completion of repairs on one of them is actually quite an important result for the combat capability of this aircraft fleet.
The accident with this B-2 occurred back in September 2021, when due to a left main landing gear malfunction, the aircraft's wing struck the runway, which accordingly damaged the low-observable coating of the vehicle and its structure overall, Air and Space Forces Magazinereports.
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Moreover, precisely because of this accident, the U.S. Air Force was forced to suspend operation of this bomber fleet for as long as 18 months, and B-2 Spirit of Georgia initially risked being sent to the boneyard altogether however, as emphasized in the service, the decisive factor in saving the aircraft was the immediate response of the 509th Maintenance Squadron engineering team.
Overall, assessing damage, investigating and analyzing critical zones of the aircraft and loads that the main structure can withstand took a whole year. And in September 2022 it flew to Northrop Grummans Plant 42 of course, after it was somewhat patched up including with the help of reinforced speed tape, which was used to seal some damage to the bomber.
As stated, precisely the timely temporary repair of the bomber saved as much as $52 million, and ultimately restoring the damaged B-2 Spirit of Georgia cost less than $24 million, which is quite little even compared to repairing other aircraft due to damage, not to mention the cost of losing the aircraft itself.
At the factory, a four-stage repair awaited the B-2, followed by scheduled maintenance.
Defense Express previously reported that B-2 production was completed 25 years ago, and Trump has already talked twice about ordering their improved version.
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