It takes maintainers—officer and enlisted—deployed from the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., to Andersen AFB, Guam, about 24 hours to wash one of the wing’s B-2 bombers. And, they have to perform the cleaning job every 30 days with a special concentration of soap for the stealthy bomber.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
