Dicks Hopes B2 Bomber Is Revived

Congress likely will approve, and President Clinton eventually support, construction this year of additional B-2 bombers beyond those already approved, perhaps 20 more, Rep. Norm Dicks said Friday.

“I predict we will get this thing started this year. I predict the Clinton administration at some point to join us on this,” the Washington congressman told The Associated Press.

“I’m going to work very hard this year to get the funding to authorize this,” said Dicks, a member of the House Appropriations subcommittees on defense and military construction.

“I think we’ve got some momentum here. This is one case where we can work on a bipartisan basis with the Republicans,” Dicks, a Democrat, said.

Dicks said his growing optimism is based on a letter seven former defense secretaries sent to President Clinton on Thursday. They urged Clinton to continue production of the bat-winged bombers beyond the 20 already delivered or on order from Northrop Grumman Corp. in Southern California.

The move could mean restoration of jobs lost in recent years at the Seattle-based Boeing Co., a subcontractor on the project, Dicks said.

“It could mean several thousand jobs restored at Boeing. But that’s not why I’m doing it. I’m doing it because it is one of the most crucial issues we face in our military,” Dicks said in a telephone interview.

“I don’t think anything short of the overall readiness of all our forces is any more important than the gap we have in our long-range bombers,” he said.

“Today we are down to 150 longrange bombers and a lot of them are almost older than the fathers of the pilots. They are literally 30 to 40 years old,” he said.

The Clinton administration says it can’t afford more of the radarevading planes, but the Pentagon is examining the possibility in a congressionally mandated study.

The first 20 B-2s will cost the government $44 billion, or $2.2 billion each, taking into account research and development. But Northrop Grumman has proposed a deal to build 20 more B-2s for under $12 billion, or roughly $595 million a plane.

Dicks said the letter from the former Pentagon chiefs “strengthens our case that this is a very important weapons system - that 20 isn’t enough.”

Perhaps the most important signature, Dicks said, was that of President Bush’s secretary Dick Cheney, “the one responsible for the thing being cut back to 20. I’m glad he recognizes that was a mistake.

“Twenty was simply a political number, not a number that makes sense from a strategic standpoint,” Dicks said.

The congressman said 40 to 60 B-2s are needed. He worked last year to keep $125 million in the budget to keep the B-2 assembly line intact should future planes be needed.

“At this point we still have a bomber industrial base. But we are on the verge of losing it,” Dicks said.

“If you shut down the line and come back 10 years from now, the cost will be $6 billion to $10 billion to reopen the line,” he said.

Dicks and Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, will meet with soon Defense Secretary William Perry about the cost effectiveness of the bomber.