CENTER RELEASES SUMMARY OF HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE THAT AFFIRMS CASE FOR THE B-2, DEBUNKS CRITICAL STUDIES

(Washington, D.C.): On the eve of a pivotal vote in
the House of Representatives concerning additional
procurement of B-2 aircraft, the Center for Security
Policy offered fresh ammunition to proponents of this
state-of-the-art stealth bomber. The vote will come
tomorrow on a Kasich-Dellums amendment to the FY1996
Defense appropriations bill aimed at striking funding
authorized by the House and recommended by the House
Appropriations Committee to buy a second block of 20
B-2s. In a summary of its recent High-Level Roundtable
Discussion on the Future of the Manned Bomber Force
released today, the Center presents insights that
sharply contradict criticisms and deprecating studies
frequently cited by B-2 opponents.

Particularly noteworthy in this regard were the
following highlights of the Roundtable Discussion:

• It is unlikely that the United States will
  have fourteen days of actionable warning of a
  crisis — a key assumption in the study
  performed by the Institute for Defense Analysis
  for Under Secretary of Defense Paul Kaminski.
  That was not the case with World War II, with
  Korea or with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait; there is
  no basis for assuming it will be the case in the
  future. Put simply, present and foreseeable
  international conditions argue very strongly for
  a significant force of bombers equipped with the
  unique capabilities of the B-2 to deliver large
  amounts of ordinance over intercontinental ranges
  on very short notice.
• The capability to strike at very long range with
  very great accuracy using conventional weapons
  has been a goal of strategic air power since the
  invention of the airplane. The B-2 actually
  achieves that goal, tipping the military equation
  in favor of the U.S. It is difficult to imagine
  any other nation on earth which, if equipped with
  such a system, would stop producing it.
• Stealth does not make an aircraft completely
  invulnerable to enemy forces. But, a stealthy
  aircraft presents a significant strategic
  advantage over non-stealthy aircraft. The
  submarine is a stealthy vehicle in another
  environment. Even though submarines can be
  located and sunk, they still provide an
  immeasurable advantage to navies which possess
  them.
• The arguments put forward in a study performed
  by TASC Inc. under contract to the Defense
  Department, contending that the B-2 line can
  beclosed without significant adverse impact on
  the Nation’s future ability to produce bombers,
  do not stand up to rigorous scrutiny in a world
  in which the United States must maintain a large
  and flexible bomber force — and do so within
  severe budgetary constraints.
• The facts also do not support interpretations
  of the GAO’s findings that have been widely
  disseminated in the press as indicative of fatal
  technical and testing flaws in the B-2 program.
  It appears, rather, that the B-2 — like many
  other weapon systems (notably, the M-1 tank, the
  Bradley fighting vehicle and the Apache attack
  helicopter) that have been the subjects of
  critical GAO evaluations — will prove to be an
  extremely valuable instrument for the U.S.
  military to employ on behalf of the Nation’s
  security.

While no effort was made to define or formally
approve consensus positions or recommendations, the
summary of the proceedings of this Roundtable Discussion
offer powerful arguments for fielding a large and
flexible manned bomber force for the indefinite future,
with a fleet of more than 20 B-2 aircraft as its
backbone.Click here for copies of the full, href=”index.jsp?section=papers&code=95-P_61at”>seven-page summary and list of
participants.