Trump Announces Order of ‘25 Brand New’ B-2 Bombers, More Than Doubling Arsenal
DAVOS, Switzerland—President Donald Trump said in Davos that the United States will add 25 new B-2 bombers to its active fleet, more than doubling the country’s stealth bomber arsenal.
"We just ordered 25 brand new ones—the latest and the greatest—the B-2 bomber, think of them," he said after a 90-minute address during a Q&A after his World Economic Forum speech on Wednesday while discussing his decision to strike the Iranian nuclear program in June. "They went in there at two o’clock in the morning with no moon, no light, no nothing. And every single one of those massive bombs hit its target."
The B-2 pilots in Operation Midnight Hammer famously flew a nearly 37-hour round-trip mission to destroy the Fordow nuclear lab buried deep within a mountain bunker. Only the United States possesses the advanced bunker buster bombs needed to penetrate Fordow from above, as well as the bombers used to drop them. The new order of 25 B-2s will add to the 19 in active service.
Trump’s announcement comes as the United States moves a variety of military hardware to the Middle East in the wake of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on protests, with Trump weighing a series of "decisive" military options, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday evening. The Islamic Republic has killed upwards of 12,000 civilians, even as Trump warned that the United States was "locked and loaded" to take action should the regime kill demonstrators. According to the Journal, the list of military assets the United States is positioning in the region includes not only the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group, but fighter jets and missile defense systems as well.
Trump used the occasion to tout the success of the Iran nuclear program strike, stating the Islamic Republic was only a few months away from obtaining an atomic weapon.
"If we didn’t take them out, they would have had a nuclear weapon within two months," Trump said. "They were very close to having the nuclear weapon. We hit them hard and it was a total obliteration. They were the bully of the Middle East. They’re not the bully of the Middle East anymore."
Trump issued his strongest statement against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to date over the weekend, telling Politico that "it’s time to look for new leadership in Iran" and referring to the dictator as "a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people." His harsh words came after Khamenei unleashed a social media tirade against Trump early Saturday, blaming the president for the Iranian regime’s campaign of violence against its own people.
Last week, the Trump administration took its first concrete action against the regime since the protest movement began. The Treasury and State departments unveiled sweeping sanctions on the Iranian leaders responsible for orchestrating the bloody crackdown against protesters on Thursday, including the Islamic Republic’s Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani.
B-2s were not the only pieces of military equipment Trump promoted during his Davos speech. He touted a new F-47, in his words "the most devastating plane, fighter jet ever," which is "supposed to be the first stage-six plane, undetectable, like our B-2 bombers were undetectable."
Trump mentioned the increased military budget—$1.5 trillion—and laid out his plans of "bringing back battleships."
"The battleship is one hundred times more powerful than the great battleships you saw in World War Two," he said. "Those great big, gorgeous ships: the Missouri, the Iowa, the Alabama."
He made a point to note as well that his administration will no longer allow stock buybacks for defense companies.
"All of the money that goes into stock buybacks is going to go into building plants," Trump said. "They’re going to build new plants to make Tomahawks, Patriots."
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