WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, MO. ? Should U.S. forces attack Iraq, “Caveman” is ready to pack up his brown-bag lunch stuffed with an Italian hoagie and trail mix and grab his air mattress and sleeping bag.

“Caveman” is the call sign of Air Force Lt. Col. Scott Vander Hamm, who pilots the radar-evading, bat-winged B-2 Spirit bomber, the first warplane the Pentagon will send into harm’s way to penetrate Iraqi air defenses and command centers if President Bush gives the order.

Vander Hamm, the lanky and angular squadron commander of the 325th Bomb Squadron, flew three missions against Serbian targets during the 1999 U.S.-led air war over Yugoslavia. Together with his co-pilot, he took off from this rural, western Missouri base and headed across the Atlantic to the Balkans, where he dropped 2,000-pound precision bombs.

The round-trip flight was nearly 30 hours. Last fall, the B-2’s flew to Afghanistan to hit Taliban targets and then headed on to the British-island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Those sorties averaged 40 hours. The Afghan campaign by the B-2s included the world record for the longest combat mission by an aircraft: 44.2 hours.

That’s where a meal and a mattress comes in.

“To keep up the insulin level, I bring a hoagie and trail mix, and lots of water,” says Vander Hamm. Behind the B-2’s hard ejection seats is just enough room for an air mattress and a sleeping bag. Some pilots bring along $20 aluminum lounge chairs to set up in the $1.1 billion Stealth bomber.

Sleep training

For their long duration missions, all B-2 pilots train in a 24-hour simulator. And their attention to sleep is as precise as their bombing coordinates. Vander Hamm says physiologists tell the pilots they should “power nap” for less than 45 minutes or settle down for a longer sleep of more than two hours. Anything in between makes them less alert and crabby, he says.

What makes the B-2 valuable as a fighting tool is its stealthy nature, which comes from its design and graphite skin, attributes that make it almost invisible to an adversary. Its engines are all but buried in its boat-like gray body, which prevent an enemy’s radar from getting a clear fix on the intruding warplane.

The B-2 is also all rounded-angles with no tail, which causes the radar beam to disperse. “The Stealth is phenomenal. You will not see us,” said Master Sgt. Wayne Cox, a stocky maintenance chief with 20 years of experience, who repairs the graphite skin of the aircraft. He points to a nearby B-52, a massive and workman-like bomber for the past 50 years, and then to the sloping B-2 inside a hangar, which appears to have arrived from another planet.

The B-2 Stealth Bomber, made by the Northrop Grumman Corp., is shown landing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. The bomber would play a leading role in an initial U.S. attack on Iraq if President George W. Bush orders a strike.

“From Stone Age to that,” he said.

Whiteman home of B-2s

Pilots continuously prepare for long-range bombings at Whiteman, home of all 21 B-2s. The planes began arriving in 1993 and six years later took part in their first combat mission against the Serb forces of Slobodan Milosevic.

On this day, two Stealth bombers are set to take off from Whiteman on a 20-hour training flight to test their skills. The pilots will fly north to Alaska where they will drop bombs at the Pentagon’s Yukon Range before banking south toward the Pacific island of Guam. At Guam, two new pilots will take the controls and head to Alaska to release ordnance before turning back toward Missouri.

“We’re ready. That’s what I’ve told our bosses. Call us when you need us,” said Col. Doug Raaberg, the 509th Bomb Wing Commander, who is responsible for making sure the wing’s two combat squadron’ are trained for battle.

What’s ahead

Meanwhile, Raaberg says, Whiteman is in the process of moving some of the B-2s to forward operating bases at Fairford, England, and Diego Garcia. The plan, under discussion since the air war in Kosovo, would provide military leaders with a greater number of sorties from the B-2 by reducing the flight time from Missouri.

It’s uncertain how many B-2s will move overseas. Four of the warplanes took part in the Kosovo and Afghanistan campaigns, although some military analysts predict that given the greater number of targets in Iraq, more B-2s would be needed by Army Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. combatant commander in the Gulf region.