The upgraded B-2 Spirit leaves enemy air defenses vulnerable.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that the contract to upgrade all B-2 bombers is worth $28 million and is expected to be completed by July 9, 2020. While the upgrade was publicized, the details of the upgrade were not disclosed.

Meanwhile, U.S. Air Force General Kent Mickelson revealed that the U.S. Air Force will most likely focus on upgrading the B-2's electronics and enhancing its stealth capabilities to make it a top-tier stealth aircraft.

Specifically, one of the most significant upgrades for the B-2 Spirit is the modernization of its Defense Management System (DMS). This technology provides the flight crew with information about the location of enemy air defense systems.

If equipped with modern DMS, the B-2 Spirit becomes more dynamic and effective in enemy airspace, allowing it to better assess the situation and make quicker decisions.

"The DMS system is expected to be operational by the mid-2020s," Mickelson emphasized.

Thanks to DMS, aircraft can also move quickly to an ultra-high frequency satellite, enhancing communication with command center. For example, an upgraded communication system could help the crew accurately drop bombs according to instructions from senior commanders, including the President in the event of a nuclear attack.

The upgrade to the B-2 Spirit is like killing two birds with one stone, enabling it to drop both conventional and nuclear weapons. In particular, it significantly increases the speed of data traffic for the aircraft.

Stealth aircraft utilize a data link known to experts as LINK-16, encompassing both UHF and VHF data. This allows the B-2 Spirit to communicate with ground control stations and command centers, as well as receive information from other manned and unmanned aircraft.

However, information from nearby reconnaissance aircraft needs to be transmitted through a ground control station. This requires modern defense management technology that will enable the B-2 to receive real-time video imagery from active aircraft more quickly, efficiently, and accurately.

The B-2 Spirit has also been upgraded with a high-tech flight management control processor to expand and modernize the cockpit computer system, adding new software.

This work also includes arranging and integrating the flight control microprocessors, the brain of the aircraft, into a multi-tasking integrated processing system. The result is a new fiber optic cabling model, the opposite of the cabling arrangements on buses.

The reason is that the B-2's computer system, dating back to the 1980s, is both outdated and inadequate for the increasingly demanding operational needs of the new situation, particularly regarding data overload and the speed and reliability of information.

The new microprocessors will increase the performance of the aircraft's electronics and computer systems by approximately 1,000 times.