Air Force Upgrades B-2 Stealth Bomber as Modern Air Defenses Advance

The Air Force is developing an upgrade to its long-range, high-altitude B-2 Spirit stealth bomber allowing it to better detect increasingly sophisticated enemy air defenses at longer ranges.
Modern air defense systems are improving at a rapid pace as computer processing power grows exponentially. U.S. aviation leaders have grown concerned that these advancing air defenses will make stealth aircraft like the B-2 more vulnerable.
The B-2’s stealth technology, as it was configured and envisioned in the 1980s, did not fully anticipate or account for these advances that allow air defenses to detect aircraft through a wider range of frequencies and detect them at further ranges. Engineers have developed high-end air defense systems that are increasingly mobile and able to utilize digital, networked processing technology.
Russian-built S-400 air defense systems, are one of many more modern systems which use three different missiles to target planes at ranges up to 250 miles.
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