Northrop B-2 Bomber Operating Costs Reach $150,000 Per Flight Hour

The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber’s operating costs reached approximately $150,000 per flight hour according to U.S. Department of Defense estimates, making it the most expensive military aircraft to operate in history and generating massive ongoing revenue for Northrop Grumman through maintenance contracts that require 120 hours of maintenance for every single hour of flight time. The extraordinary costs stem primarily from the aircraft’s fragile stealth coating materials that must be continuously reapplied and maintained in climate-controlled hangars, with each flight requiring an average of 124 man-hours of maintenance to restore the bomber’s radar-absorbent coating and recalibrate sensors.

The B-2’s maintenance intensity far exceeds comparable strategic bombers, requiring 119-120 maintenance hours per flight hour compared to just 53 hours for the B-52 and 60 hours for the B-1B, according to September 1997 Air Force data. The stealth coating is so fragile that rain can damage it, necessitating specialized climate-controlled hangars that protect the aircraft from heat and humidity that degrade the radar-absorbent materials. This extreme maintenance burden transforms the B-2 program into a perpetual revenue stream for Northrop Grumman, as the Air Force depends entirely on the contractor for specialized knowledge, facilities, and materials required to maintain the stealth coating’s effectiveness.

The $150,000 per flight hour operating cost—some estimates place it as high as $163,000—creates unsustainable lifecycle expenses that dwarf the aircraft’s already astronomical $2.13 billion per-unit acquisition cost. A typical B-2 training flight of 8 hours costs taxpayers approximately $1.2 million just in operating expenses, while a long-range combat mission of 30+ hours can exceed $4.5 million in flight costs alone, not including weapons, pre-mission preparation, or post-mission restoration. Over the fleet’s operational lifetime, maintenance and operating costs will far exceed the original $44 billion program acquisition cost, demonstrating how cost-plus contracting enables contractors to design weapons systems with built-in dependency on expensive contractor support.

The B-2 maintenance costs exemplify how defense contractors profit from designing complex systems that require perpetual contractor support rather than systems optimized for military maintainability and affordability. Northrop Grumman’s stealth coating technology created a deliberate dependence where only the company possesses the proprietary knowledge, specialized equipment, and controlled access to materials needed to maintain the aircraft’s signature stealth capabilities. This vendor lock-in ensures that Northrop extracts maximum revenue over the aircraft’s 40+ year service life, as the Air Force has no alternative providers and no ability to perform maintenance in-house without violating technical data rights and proprietary processes controlled by the contractor.

The extraordinary maintenance burden also severely limits the B-2’s operational availability, as aircraft spend vastly more time undergoing contractor maintenance than flying missions. With 120 hours of maintenance required for each flight hour, a B-2 that flies 200 hours annually requires 24,000 hours of maintenance labor—equivalent to 12 full-time technicians working year-round on a single aircraft. This maintenance intensity means the 20-plane operational fleet requires approximately 240 full-time contractor maintenance personnel, creating permanent high-cost contractor positions at Air Force bases and ensuring Northrop Grumman maintains a lucrative long-term presence receiving taxpayer funds for decades after the last aircraft was delivered.