
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 30, 1990                   TAG: 9004300241
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CUTTING B-2

FOR A WHILE there, CIA Director William Webster and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney were headed in opposite directions: Webster saying the Soviet threat was much diminished, Cheney denying it. Now the defense secretary has turned toward the CIA leader's position. He is trimming spending requests for three types of aircraft and delaying delivery on two kinds of combat planes.

One cutback will bring the B-2 Stealth bomber from a projected fleet of 132 down to 75. That's still 75 too many. Congress should seize the opportunity to knock out this supercostly and unneeded project.

It has become standard in recent years for the Pentagon to come in with low-end estimates on weapons systems to get projects started. When the costs escalate, as they always do, planners try to hold onto the original authorization while reducing the number of units the money will buy. By then, enough contracts and subcontracts have been signed (in as many different states and congressional districts as possible) to make the project a jobs issue with members of Congress. So it takes on its own life.

That may well happen with Stealth. But if the idea is to spend billions of federal dollars to provide people jobs, there are better ways than building an unessential aircraft that may never be able to carry out its assignment.

In an era of land- and sea-based missiles, big manned bombers are an anachronism. The B-2's claim to fame is its tiny silhouette on radar. It's supposed to sneak past enemy defenses and drop nuclear bombs on targets that remain after the first wave or two of missiles: just the thing to make the rubble bounce. But the cruise missile, for one, can fly in, hugging the terrain, avoiding radar, and hit targets with much greater accuracy - and for only $1.2 million per missile.

Compare that cost with $500 million-plus, the figure projected earlier for the B-2. Cutting the fleet nearly in half will drive the per-copy price over $800 million because some expenses, such as for research and development, will remain. If those numbers don't stun you, consider that the B-2 has serious manufacturing and technical problems that already are pushing its costs higher.

One of those problems is with its avionics system, supposed to prevent attacks on the plane by jamming enemy defenses. Apparently the "stealth" factor isn't sufficient to take care of that.

The B-2 is an impressive-looking plane on the ground, even more so on paper. But its ability to perform its mission is at best unproved. At $800 million each, we can't afford these winged lemons.

by CNB