HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE — The gray-black aircraft on the tarmac was nothing like the C-17 cargo carrier next to it, nor the F-15 fighters that ply the skies over Hawai'i.

This was not the first time a B-2 Spirit bomber was on the ground in Hawai'i. In 1996 a B-2 was dedicated at Hickam.

Eighteen years after it first flew, the B-2 Spirit bomber remains a rare bird. Although they usually fly over Hawai'i about once a month for training — usually sight unseen — the Air Force parked one of the stealthy bat-wing bombers yesterday for a brief inspection.

"For me, it's the first time I've seen a B-2 up close. It's a thrill," said Col. Scott West, commander of the 613th Air and Space Operations Center at Hickam.

Four of the Air Force's inventory of 21 Spirits are on a rotational deployment to Guam from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.

The radar-evading bombers, each of which costs approximately $1.2 billion, drop 500-pound and 2,000-pound dummy concrete bombs at Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island in more than 20-hour roundtrips from Guam.

The Pentagon has rotated B-52 bombers and more recently, the B-2s, to Guam since 2004. Their presence is considered a deterrent to countries like North Korea, and a counterbalance to the vacuum left by large numbers of ground troops being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The B-2 Spirit is the most capable bomber in the world today, bar none," said Navy Rear Adm. Charles Martoglio, U.S. Pacific Command's director of operations. "Its broad array of capabilities are designed to make an adversary think, 'I will not win if I go to war against the United States today.'"

STEALTHY, COMPACT

Outside, the boomerang bomber is covered in radar-absorbing paint. Its angled shape keeps it stealthy. Inside, it's not exactly spacious, with room for two pilots, a toilet, a fold-out ladder that doubles as sleeping space in flight, a lot of electronics, some storage space, and not much else.

An array of computers keep the four-engine jet — which is more than twice as wide as it is long — flyable.

"It's a different type of flying," said Maj. Rob Makros, 32, a pilot with the 393rd Bomb Squadron who used to fly F-15 fighters. "You don't go upside down in this one."

The two-member crew takes turns catching 45 minutes of sleep when they get tired.

The B-2s saw combat duty in Kosovo and flew 44 hours from Missouri to Afghanistan and back. The bombers also were used over Iraq, but now are not used in either Iraq or Afghanistan, Air Force officials said.

The Spirit made a public appearance over Pearl Harbor for the Dec. 7, 1941, observance, but they are between 16,000 and 29,000 feet when they overfly Pohakuloa, officials said.

Maj. Brian Bogue, who's with the 613th Air and Space Operations Center at Hickam, said some — including Big Island Mayor Harry Kim — have questioned the safety of using non-guided inert bombs at Pohakuloa during the Koa Lightning exercises.

The dummy ordnance is made out of concrete with fixed fins. The 2,000-pounders are 8 to 10 feet long and are about 20 inches in diameter, Bogue said. The 500-pound inert bombs are 6 to 7 feet long and are about 14 inches in diameter.

Bogue said precision-guided weapons have moveable fins, but if those fins malfunction, the bomb can sail off course.

"That's why we chose unguided weapons," Bogue said. "Everyone thinks guided weapons are more precise, and that is true, they are, but we've got to look at the safety factor."

Using radar, the bombs fall within 100 feet of the targets, which are more than 2 1/2 miles within the Pohakuloa boundary, officials said.

In November, the B-2s simulated an attack on ships in port over Hawai'i. The bombers also fly to Alaska and last month completed the first aerial bombing mission at Kwajalein Atoll.

Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com.