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Could the adversary still just send cannon equipped fighters to the general that would locate the stealth bomber visually and shoot it to pieces ? Sure, could

Could the adversary still just send cannon equipped fighters to the general that would locate the stealth bomber visually and shoot it to pieces ? Sure, could be rather hard to do in the night but once a stealth bomber is sighted visually, it is toast - B2 simply has no self defence weapons available at all. A stealth fighter could be better off if it can defend itself while still avoiding others getting a weapon lock, effectively forcing them to use visually sighted cannon while it can use sensor guided gun and missiles normally.

sfifs 7y ago
The B2 especially is huge (there's one on display in Dayton) and likely slow. If it's been localized to within a few km or so, it's probably a sitting duck to any reasonably modern air force.
computerex 7y ago
There is no way a B2 will be deployed without at least a couple fighters escorting it.
- ivalm 7y ago
  If it has fighters escorting it then it is not invisible.... whole point of B2s is to be invisible to long range radars (due to plane geometry). F22 and F35 don’t have this capability.
nradov 7y ago
That's the type of tactic that mostly only works in movies. In the real world interception is very, very hard just due to geometry. Fighters have limited fuel supplies and don't move much faster than bombers. Any no country can afford to keep a lot of them in the air or even on alert status at any given time. So the circumstances have to line up pretty well to get an interceptor in the right place at the right time. And even then, aircraft like the B-2 are difficult targets to actually hit. At high altitudes they are fairly maneuverable due to low wing loading.
- m4rtink 7y ago
  Well, existing stealth bombers (basically B2 at this point) are sub sonic while many fighters are super sonic. As for range - that's a good point, if your low fregvency or passive radar gives you a big bounding box, your fighters could run out of fuel before they find the stealth bomber. Or it might drop/launch its payload before you catch it.
  - nradov 7y ago
    Supersonic dash capability can help in some limited circumstances but it doesn't fundamentally change anything. Fuel consumption at those speeds is extremely high.

sfifs 7y ago

The B2 especially is huge (there's one on display in Dayton) and likely slow. If it's been localized to within a few km or so, it's probably a sitting duck to any reasonably modern air force.

computerex 7y ago

There is no way a B2 will be deployed without at least a couple fighters escorting it.

ivalm 7y ago
If it has fighters escorting it then it is not invisible.... whole point of B2s is to be invisible to long range radars (due to plane geometry). F22 and F35 don’t have this capability.

nradov 7y ago

That's the type of tactic that mostly only works in movies. In the real world interception is very, very hard just due to geometry. Fighters have limited fuel supplies and don't move much faster than bombers. Any no country can afford to keep a lot of them in the air or even on alert status at any given time. So the circumstances have to line up pretty well to get an interceptor in the right place at the right time. And even then, aircraft like the B-2 are difficult targets to actually hit. At high altitudes they are fairly maneuverable due to low wing loading.

m4rtink 7y ago
Well, existing stealth bombers (basically B2 at this point) are sub sonic while many fighters are super sonic. As for range - that's a good point, if your low fregvency or passive radar gives you a big bounding box, your fighters could run out of fuel before they find the stealth bomber. Or it might drop/launch its payload before you catch it.
- nradov 7y ago
  Supersonic dash capability can help in some limited circumstances but it doesn't fundamentally change anything. Fuel consumption at those speeds is extremely high.