CENTER HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE OFFERS SECOND OPINIONS ON DUBIOUS CONCLUSIONS OF STUDIES CRITICAL OF THE B-2

(Washington, D.C.): When Congress returns after the August
recess, one of the first, and potentially most controversial,
actions it will take could determine the future viability of the
U.S. manned bomber force — whether to build or not to build
additional B-2 bombers. Unfortunately, what should on the merits
be a fairly straightforward decision to procure more than twenty
B-2s has been greatly complicated by the release of three
misleading analyses. Two were performed under contract for the
Defense Department (one by the Institute for Defense Analysis and
the other by TASC, Inc.) and the third was produced for Congress
by the General Accounting Office. Their conclusions were,
respectively, that: the United States did not have a military
requirement for more stealth bombers; the bomber industrial base
could be preserved without building additional B-2s; and there
are serious technical problems with the testing and production of
this aircraft.

These conclusions fly in the face of most available
evidence and considerable expert opinion. In the interest of
examining them critically and authoritatively prior to further
congresssional action on the B-2, the Center for Security Policy
today convened a second High-Level Roundtable Discussion on the
Future of the Manned Bomber Force.⁽¹⁾
Among the roughly forty participants in this Roundtable were such
distinguished national security decision-makers as:
Representative Norman Dicks (D-WA); former Under Secretary of
Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz; former Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency Director Ronald Lehman and John Kohout, former
Director for Plans and Director of Operations at the Strategic
Air Command. Also present were representatives of the U.S. Air
Force and the Congressional Budget Office, industry experts,
congressional staff and senior journalists.

The Roundtable featured a thorough discussion of: the
continued need for U.S. power projection in the post-Cold War
strategic environment and the role of manned bombers in meeting
that need; the importance stealth, intercontinental range and
precision-guided munitions capabilities to the U.S. manned bomber
force of the future; the relevance of an active B-2 production
line to preserving a viable bomber industrial base; and the facts
concerning deficiencies in the B-2 program alleged by the GAO.

A summary of the highlights
of this informative High-Level Roundtable will be available
shortly. To obtain a copy, please contact the Center.

(1) The first such roundtable was held
last year. See the Center’s Decision Brief The Case
for Continued Production of the B-2 Bomber: Center Roundtable
Shows Why U.S. Can’t Afford to Stop Now ( href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=94-P_64″>No. 94-P 64, 24 June 1994).