THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010403
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
The Air Force has solved maintenance and reliability problems and spare-parts shortages that have kept too many of its B-1B bombers on the ground, a senior general said Tuesday.
Gen. John M. Loh, head of the Hampton-based Air Combat Command, said a six-month test of 24 B-1Bs at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota proved the problem-plagued planes can more than meet Air Force readiness standards if their operations are fully funded.
Planes included in the test were judged ready to perform their missions more than 84 percent of the time, Loh said, well above the 75 percent standard the Air Force sets for a ``mature'' bomber force. The B-1Bs have been held to an ``interim'' standard of 55 percent.
Loh's comments came as the Air Force and other services prepare for the release next week of their 1996 budget requests. A skeptical Congress last year provided funds for the operation of 60 B-1Bs.
Loh said Tuesday he would like to see that number increase to 84 but would not disclose how much progress toward that total the Air Force will seek in the new budget.
The Air Force wants the B-1B to be the backbone of a bomber force that some of its officials have suggested could replace Navy aircraft carriers as the premier instrument for projecting American might around the world.
A smiling Loh declined Tuesday to enter the carrier-bomber debate, a key issue being studied by an independent commission named by Congress to review the roles and missions of all the military branches. The panel is to issue its report in the spring.
But Loh asserted that ``there's no better weapons system anywhere than bombers'' to establish American presence quickly when regional wars break out.
For the B-1B test, which was ordered by Congress last year, the Air Force added to spare-parts inventories, assigned additional crews and achieved a variety of operational efficiencies in its 28th Bomb Wing. The test cost about $2.1 million.
The 84 percent readiness score the wing achieved brought the average for the entire B-1B force up to 65 percent, Loh said.
Loh asserted that engine and other problems that have contributed to congressional skepticism about the B-1 are in the past.
Built by Rockwell International, the B-1 was designed to deliver nuclear payloads in a war with the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War, the Air Force has adapted the plane to drop conventional bombs. by CNB