KINGS OF THE SKY
INCREDIBLE pictures show US stealth bombers - who use the call-sign "DEATH" - soaring over the White Cliffs of Dover.
The dramatic images capture the B-2 Spirit aircraft tearing across the UK's beaches with RAF F-35 Lightning jets in the first dual training mission of its kind.
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The stealth bombers are the most expensive military aircraft ever made - costing £1bn when they were introduced.
And engineering development and production costs totalled £1.64bn for each of the 21 aircraft built between 1987 and 2000.
It comes after the United States Air Force deployed the B-2 Spirit stealth bombers to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
The nuclear-capable, batwinged warplane can drop as many as 80 independently guided weapons on a single mission.
It is also capable of delivering a single block-buster bomb known as a Massive Ordnance Perpetrator on underground missile factories.
The planes on show at the Gloucestershire airbase
THREE Northrop-Grumman B-2 Spirits are currently in Gloucestershire.
The planes used the call-sign DEATH on arrival - a traditional call-sign used by the unit.
The three currently at the base are:
- 89-0168 "Spirit of New York”
- 89-0129 "Spirit of Georgia"
- 82-1071 "Spirit of Mississippi”
While in the UK, the aircraft will conduct a series of training activities in Europe.
The supersonic F-35 fighter jet cost £100million each and come with hi-tech coating which makes the fighter jets “invisible” to enemy radars.
They have a maximum speed of 1.6 times the speed of sound and can touch down vertically.
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Group Captain Richard Yates, Chief of Staff at the UK Air Battle Staff said: “We’re delighted that the USAF and 501st Wing Bomber Task Force are here in the UK and that our F-35 Lightning pilots have the chance to fly alongside and train with the B-2 bomber crews.
"This is the first time that any other country has done this."
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US B-2 stealth bombers land at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire for a series of training activities in Europe