The Air Force planned to buy at least 100 of the planes and begin to replace B-1 and B-2 bombers.”
75 Billion or what? 10% of all defense spending on these planes?!
Fucking hell war is expensive.
What's expensive is pathetic dong measuring contests by sad old men.
The big cost is "stealth" in these things. You only need that if you intend to enact a war intentionally. Cheaper old style bombers are fine for the majority of day to day deterrence operations. In fact they are probably better since they can optimize for cargo loads.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit#Op...
A b21 can be used everyday too?
Then again, perhaps maintenance of a stealth bomber really is horrendous enough that it wouldn't be able to fly sorties "every day".
But basically I read GP cooment as an apples to oranges comparison (since you traditionally wouldn't drop bombs using a cargo aircraft, and wouldn't airlift cargo with a bomber.)
The USS Zumwalt is an even bigger joke if you look it up. 20+ billion and basically a mistake.
Then just think about what China can build all this for in terms of speed and cost. It is game, set, match on a 100 year time frame.