Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R00030081 0003-7
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The Washington Post
Air Force Unveils the B2, Its Radar-Evading Stealth Bomber
By George C. Wilson
Wdslimxtoii Post Staff Writer
PALMDALE,
Calif.,
Nov. 22—
With
a guard dog standing under
each wingtip, the nation’s $500 mil-
lion Stealth bomber was rolled out
of the dark of its top-secret hangar
here today into the sunshine of open
space for its public unveiling.
Shouts and cheers from hundreds
of the 2,200 Northrop Corp. work-
era who built this newest strategic
bomber
erupted
as
the
hangar
doors parted, revealing aTHpcft-and-
gray
radar-evading
aircraft
that
looks like a stingray.
"We
are
not’
just
rolling
out
America’s newest strategic bomb-
er,” said Air Force Secretary Ed-
ward C. Aldridge Jr. "We are ush-
ering in a new age of strategic de-
terrence.”
The Air Force secretary said
it
was “America’s enduring hope and
prayer that this magnificent aircraft
will never fly in anger” but instead
will
further deter nuclear war be-
tween the United States and Soviet
Union.
Should deterrence
fail, the mis-
sion of the Stealth bomber is to fly
high over the Soviet Union search-
ing out and destroying missiles that
have
not
already
been
fired
and
knocking
out command
posts
un-
touched
by
retaliatory
waves
of
U.S. missiles fired earlier from land
and sea.
The bomber, designated theTS2?
looked strikingly sleek and small as
it stood on a prairie of cement out-
side the Air Force factory where it
was assembled. Every surface has
been smoothed and rounded to slip
through
rather than
re flect
radar
beams. The flytn^-wfh^sKaDe has a
to accommodate thfiTwomldts plus'
at lotgt OfSor two extra to serve as
reliefcrew
during
an
exhausting
flight from the United States to the
Soviet Union and back.
The plane
is gqwffbd by four jet
eitginiSsih pods'lfclflBie wing. with
heavily ‘nmkbCgft^jSfs and ex-
hausts
fo
reduce
detection
front
radar or heat-seeking sensors. The
B2 will
fly at.stifeonic Speeds, and
will need
aerial refueling to reach
Soviet targets from U.S. bases and
return.
Using space-age mate
as carbon composites
that absorb
radar energy, the' plane
is designed
v '
.i
ASSOCIATED PfttiS
As tow truck and security guards move away, the Air Force’s new B2 Stealth bomber sits for its first public pictures at Northrop Corp. plant in Palmdale, Calif.
td
to offer a ]jiyradar p‘roae*'iioit can
close in Selected, giving defend-
ers no time
to shoot at
it. EJMgg
dcjkkmtiiehY7or;'fo
'can
-
carry nuclear and conventional mis-
siles
and
guidi
tgftds ^titireh
fSaintam stability n
Althfiugl.tbe
(
172 feel across,"
the older B52, thj
lesi
^ie Air Force
.
... ^
of the bombers, with the one roftei
out
today
scheduled
to
fly
early
next year
to nearby Edwards Air
Force Base, where it will be tested,
and
become
operational
in
the
-1990s. The cost of the fleet of 132
‘ bombers ranges from $60 billion to
$70 billion, or from $450 million to
$500 million a plane. Aldridge said
the Air Force will provide detailed
B2 cost estimates when
it submits
its fiscal 1990 budget in January.
The
Air
Force
until
today
has
cloaked
the
Stealth
bomber
pro-
gram in secrecy. Aldridge said the
Air Force decided
to
reveal what
the B2 looks like because
it would
soon be flying anyway, meaning the
service would
not be able
to hide
the plane’s appearance from either
lr 2l0
lo
FiaVc
spy“stifflllTeS
stn'rin;
down on this countryside of brown
desert and sharp hills.
Hundreds
of Northrop
security
police, some
leading
police
dogs,
watched reporters and other guests
every
step
of
the way
as
they
moved around the Air Force plant
here. The bomber was
kept 200
feet
away
from
reporters
and
guests
in the grandstand, with
its
hose pointed toward the guests so
the
secret
feature!
of
the
flying
wing’s aft end werenot revealed.
In
U.S.-Soviet
Negotiations
to
reduce the strategy weapons now
pointed
at each superpower, there
has been agreement that each side
should be able to Ippk at the weap-
ons
of
the
other Through
on-site
inspection.
Critics ^>f the B2 con-
tend the Air Force secrecy imposed
on the bomber wilf undercut those
arms-control negotiations.
Asked
here
todiy
whether
he
would allow the
Slviets to get a
close look at the Stealth, Aldridge
replied, “We'll let them count it, but
we’re not going to jet them get up
close to it.”
If he had his way, said
the secretary, who has announced
he will leave office soon, the Soviets
would get no closer than the 200-
foot
range
reporters
and
guests
were kept at today.
Another
criticism of
the B2
is
iat if-cpwld OlktctterSoi
vuuS
dTid
-
lh==
"Mft’tRblf
jjHricnr lire in times of tension. Un-
der
this
theory,
espoused
by
the
Union of Concerned Scientists and
others, the Soviets would see U.S.
missiles such as the MX as a first-
strike threat to Soviet missiles. The
B2, which would
fly
as a mop-up
operation
after
the United States
had launched its missiles under this
scenario, would attack the mobile
missiles that the Soviet Union had
held back
for
a
second-strike
re-
taliatory blow.
Aldridge dismissed this argument
at a news conference after the cer-
emony
today, contending
that
the
B2 would put more of the Soviets’
warmaking
capability
at
risk and
therefore help convince Soviet plan-
ners that a nuclear
strike on
the
United
States
would
be
a
losing
proposition.
Rep. Beverly B. Byron (D-Md.), a
member of the House Armed Ser-
vices Committee and early backer
of the Stealth bomber, agreed with
Aldridge that deployment of the B2
would not be destabilizing, but said
she was not sure all 132 would have
to
be
built
to
provide
this
extra
measure
of
deterrence. She
said
Congress might decide 50 to 100
B2s are enough.
“A
lot
is going to depend on
its
test program," she
said. She
said
the future of the B2 fleet will have
as the
program
moves
into
"the
early
1990s.
The Air Force in the 1960s built
a strategic bomber designated the
RS70 to perform the same mission
as the B2. President John F. Ken-
nedy, after a fierce debate
in Con-
gress and elsewhere, canceled that
version of the B70 bomber in 1962
on the argument that
its added de-
terrent
value was
not enough
to
justify the cost of producing it,
Gen. Larry D. Welch, Air Force
chief of staff, mindful of the coming
budget crunch,
said
the B2 “com-
pletely warrants continued, unwa-
vering
support
the
overriding
purpose of this new bomber
is to
ensure that we never need employ
it.”
The
flying wing B2
rolled
out
today
looks
wiry
slm|lar
tb
the
7ffl9..dMijj(he3 by
the" jTttTJaek
Northrop
in. tjm
1940a. The
Air
Force then was enthusiastic about
the
flying
wing,
but
canceled
its
order
for
after
one
crashed,
money became scarce and then-Air
Force Secretary Stuart Symington
insisted on a merger of aerospace
companies,
which
Northrop
op-
posed.
Thomas V. Jones, chief executive
officer
of
Northrop
Corp.,
today
said
that Jack Northrop had been
briefed on
this new version of the
flying wing shortly before he died.
In closing his speech hailing the B2,
Jones said, "Jack Northrop, we sa-
lute you.”