Aaron Spray

The Northrop B-2 Spirit is notoriously expensive to operate and has an exceptionally large number of required maintenance hours per flight hour. The Air Force is set to reduce, although not eliminate, these burdens with the incoming Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider. The B-21 is intended to be a generational upgrade over the B-2, offering increased all-aspect stealth, networking, more advanced stealth coatings, lower maintenance, higher sortie generation, and more.

All United States Air Force fighter jet pilots are required to be commissioned officers. This is also true of the US Navy, the Marine Corps, and many US allies (e.g., the Royal Air Force). The main exception is the Army, where helicopter pilots may be warrant officers. Fighter pilots operate with a high level of responsibility and decision-making and often have to make independent, split-second decisions in combat that can have major strategic or political consequences.