CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810003-7

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000300810003-7
23 Nov88
(
/
THE WASHINGTON POST
Air Force Unveils the B2, Its Radar-Evading Stealth Bomber
By George C. Wilson
Washington 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-
ers who built this newest strategic
bomber erupted as the hangar
doors parted, revealing a black-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 the B27
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 reflect radar
beams. The flying wing shape has a
rounded cockpit on top, big enough
to accommodate the two pilots plus
at least od? or two extra to serve as
relief crew during an exhausting
flight from the United States to the
Soviet Union and back.
The plane is powered by four jet
engines in pods atop the wing, with
heavily masked air intakes and ex-
hausts to reduce detection from
radar or heat-seeking sensors. The
B2 will fly at subsonic speeds, and
will need aerial refueling to reach
Soviet targets from U.S. bases and
return.
as carbon composites that absorb
radar energy, the plane is designed
to offer a tiny radar profile, so it can
close in undetected, giving defend-
police, some leading police dogs,
watched reporters and other guests
every step of the way as they
moved around the Air Force plant
ers no time to shoot at it. Under
development for 10 years, it can
carry nuclear and conventional mis-
siles and guided bombs, and de -- " here. The bomber was kept 200
pends entirely on computers to
maintain stability in fight.
Although the swept-back wing is
172 feet across, about the same as
the older B52, the length of the tail-
less B2 1 caly 69 feel, about the
same as a F15 fighter.
The Air Force plans to build 132
of the bombers, with the one rolled
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
Hundreds of Northrop security' . 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.
feet away from reporters and
guests in the grandstand, with its
nose pointed toward the guests so
the secret features of the flying
wing's aft end were not revealed.
In U.S .- Soviet negotiations to
reduce the strategic weapons now
pointed at each superpower, there
has been agreement that each side
should be able to look at the weap-
ons of the other through on-site
inspection. Critics of the B2 con-
tend the Air Force decrecy imposed
on the bomber will undercut those
arms-control negotiations,
Asked here today whether he
would allow the Soviets to get a
close look at the Stealth, Aldridge
replied, "We'll let them count it, but
we're not going to let 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
Using space-age maApproved For Releaser 2060/08/08at CIARD:56-00789R000300810000-Ty as the
staring
vous
nicicar fire in times of tension. Un-
program moves into the early
1990s.
der this theory, espoused by the
down on this countryside of brown
desert and sharp hills.
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 very similar to the
Y849 designed by the late Jack
Northrop in the 1940s. The Air
Force then was enthusiastic about
the flying wing, but canceled its
order for 30 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."
1
-
:
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
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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.