It happens

Last month we got news that a B2 had crashed in Guam. It will be a crash felt for years, not because of any maintenance issues in the B2 fleet, but because this is such a small fleet of aircraft, that is used heavily, where losing one will have a deleterious effect on how far the force can be stretched.

Unlike the F-15 Crash in October last year, this was just one of those things that happens. An operation incident. Sure, the investigation boards will look it over, sure they will have their recommendations, but this will have little or no long term impact on how the small force is operated on a daily basis, or how it's long term future is seen.

One item of note seems to be that USAF firefighting has improved substantially from the first YF-22 crash at Edwards in 1992. In that incident, the aircraft burned for days because they didn't have the firefighting chemicals to put out the carbon/graphite and titanium fires. In this case the aircraft seems to have been dowsed expeditiously. I'm sure from the descriptions of the event that the hull is a write-off, but everyone must feel a lot better about the crash control they now have, especially with respect to the growing numbers of F-22's and future service introduction of the F-35.

Update

The B2 Crash seems to have occurred as a consequence of improper maintenance. The B2 seemingly suffers from moisture build up in the instrumentation. This was dealt with by aircraft maintainers in a manner that was not well documented - seeming not documented at all! The review found that when the aircraft was deployed to Guam, the moisture problem grew in nature, and lead to multiple instrument failures. The ground crew knew nothing of the measures being taken by Missouri based support teams and so didn't know to dry out the systems.

The B2 has proven to be a very reliable beast. It requires a lot of maintenance to remain that way, but nonetheless, it flies with high availability rates. We have to hope that the lessons on communicating maintenance, and presumably flying quirks, is being passed on to those who need it, in a more reliable manner.