Pentagon's stealth bombers in historic Elephant Walk spectacle

The American Air Force carried out a unique operation. As part of the Spirit Vigilance manoeuvres, 12 stealth bombers B-2 Spirit performed the Elephant Walk and then a rapid launch. This is the majority of such machines that the Pentagon has at its disposal.

Elephant Walk is the name of a spectacular procedure that involves launching a large number of aircraft and taxiing on the runway. These actions aim to send as many aircraft into the air as possible in the shortest possible time.

Although the history of the Elephant Walk dates back to World War II, it gained particular significance during the Cold War. At that time, it was practised to quickly send entire squadrons into the air in case of an alarm signalling a strike on air bases.

This year's Elephant Walk performed by B-2 aircraft is the largest revealed exercise - in previous editions, a smaller number of this type of aircraft participated.

See also: Is it NATO or Russian equipment?

The take-off of 12 B-2 aircraft means that most of the Pentagon's 18 aircraft of this type took off from the Whiteman base.

The cost of one B-2 is estimated at £1.6 billion, suggesting that £19.2 billion was in the air in a short time—more than the defence budget of Israel.

The stealth aircraft B-2 is a machine built in a flying wing configuration, with an airframe shaped and covered with a special coating to reduce the effective reflection area, thereby reducing the possibility of detection by radar.

With a length of 21 metres, B-2 has a wingspan of 52 metres and in ready-to-fly configuration weighs about 76 tonnes, of which 76 tonnes is fuel, and about 22.5 tonnes is armament, carried entirely in internal bomb bays. The range of the machine is about 11,000 km,

The B-2 Spirit bomber, although it is the latest model (first flight in 1989) of operationally used American strategic bombers (alongside B-52H and B-1B), already has its successor.

It is the B-21 Raider aircraft, which had its first flight in November 2023. This aircraft is slightly smaller and about 60 percent cheaper. The lower price and rapid pace of the development programme of this construction are expected to result in the U.S. Air Force receiving significantly more units than in the case of the B-2. The Air Force plans to purchase at least 100 such aircraft.