Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990 TAG: 9007240417
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The dire prediction by Senate Armed Services Chairman Sam Nunn came Monday as his House Armed Services counterpart, Rep. Les Aspin, D-Wis., announced he will join an effort to cancel the radar-evading plane.
"The deficit is growing and the defense budget is shrinking," Aspin told reporters prior to his speech on the House floor. "Much has happened in the last year, and none of it has been good for the B-2."
Congressional support for the costliest weapon in the military's arsenal - at more than $800 million a copy - has been eroding as the Soviet threat to the West diminishes and the federal deficit and price of a single stealth bomber increases.
The weakening support was the subject of a message sent to Bush last week by Nunn, D-Ga., and the panel's ranking Republican, John Warner of Virginia.
Nunn said late Monday that he indicated to the president that unless the administration starts lobbying harder for the bomber, it may fail in the Senate.
"I thought that before Aspin made his statement," Nunn stressed in a telephone interview.
In a statement, Nunn said he did not believe the B-2 "can be preserved unless the president, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our arms-control negotiators all argue forcefully for the program."
"Without this support, the Senate Armed Services Committee position is unlikely to prevail," the senator said.
In approving a $289 billion defense bill, the Armed Services Committee agreed to Bush's request for two planes in fiscal 1991. The full Senate is scheduled to consider the legislation later this month.
Aspin, who last year supported limited production of the B-2, cited the cost, the plane's capabilities and its mission as the rationale for his decision. Aspin said he found no "unique and compelling mission for the B-2."
In April, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney revised the Pentagon's B-2 program - trimming the budget request for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 from five planes to two and cutting the overall total from 132 to 75.
Scaling back the plan, however, increased the cost of a single plane from $530 million to $815 million. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost likely will jump to $865 million each with the total price tag at $65 billion.
by CNB