Making B-2s Better

Gene Fraser, Northrop Grumman’s VP for Long Range Strike tells attendees today at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando that the company has upgraded four USAF B-2 bombers with advanced high frequency material as part of the second phase of a fleet-wide modernization program. Fraser said the new materials give the stealthy aircraft greater reliability, since AHFM reduces maintenance hours from a standard 80 to as few as four. The new materials coating replaces some of the most labor-intensive low observable processes with more efficient ones.