The wing-shaped B-2 bomber was designed to be the trump card to Soviet air defense systems. It would be near invisible to radar: an absorbing black paint would absorb radio waves rather than reflecting them; cooling systems would reduce hot exhaust gases to ambient temperature prior to releasing them. It could carry a nuclear payload, but just as easily a conventional one, the tip of the spear, knocking out anti-aircraft installations to make way for the larger force.

On this day, November 22, in 1988 the B-2 “Spirit” stealth bomber rolled out of its hangar at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.

Although the B-2 never got to go head-to-head against Russian defenses completely, it did prove itself quite capable against the legacy system installed in other theaters of operation. The B-2 bombers were heavily involved in the initial phase of the Kosovo bombing campaign against Slobodan Milosevic, and against Sadam Hussein’s Baghdad, protected by a complex network of anti-aircraft installations, further beefed up after the first Gulf War. The B-2 bomber attacks dismantled them in a matter of days.