B-2 Bombers Ready for Missions

The Associated Press -- March 31, 1997

By Susanne M. Schafer, AP Military Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three years after the first plane was delivered to its Missouri base, B-2 stealth bombers will be declared ready this week to take on nuclear and conventional combat missions.

If called upon, one of the strategic bombers' jobs will be to drop an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon designed to destroy underground enemy targets, a senior military officer said last week. "With the B-2, the deeply buried target killer will come on board," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Six B-2s will become part of the Pentagon's "nuclear war plan" as of Tuesday, the officer said. Air Force officials declined to comment on the date, saying it was classified.

Thirteen of the huge, bat-winged bombers are stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. The Air Force expects to have 21 B-2s in service by early in the next decade.

If the cost of the research, development, procurement and operational support is factored in, each plane carries a $2.2 billion price tag, according to the publication Defense Week.

The B-2 was designed to be able to reach deep into enemy territory to attack heavily defended targets -- and then return safely -- because it is difficult to detect in flight. It has no vertical tail surfaces and its skin absorbs, rather than reflects, radar signals.

The B-2's first flight was in July 1989 and the first bomber entered service at Whiteman in December 1993. The aircraft was declared to have reached a "limited" capability for delivering non-nuclear weapons at the beginning of this year.

It takes time for such planes, their crews and logistical support systems to be declared fully ready to take on such missions, explained Robert S. Norris, a military analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "There is a whole manual of things that have to be done," he said. "The Air Force is very strict about this; they go by the book."

As of Jan. 1, 1998, two more B-2s will be available to take on missions under the nuclear war plan, the senior military officer said.

The earth-penetrating nuclear weapon, known as the B-61 (Mod 11), has been modified to be able to attack buried targets such as command-and-control bunkers or other military-related facilities. "It's the only capability we have to reach these targets that are buried several hundred feet under ground," the senior officer said.

Several nations, including Libya, Iraq and North Korea, are believed to have burrowed into the earth to protect military sites. The officer noted that the Russians also "have a penchant for burying things underground."

Last year, then-Defense Secretary William Perry raised eyebrows when he asserted that Libya was building a chemical weapons facility inside a mountain near the city of Tarhunah, and warned that a military strike against the alleged plant was an option. But Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak publicly derided that idea, saying Egyptian inspectors have not found such activity at the site.

The less-advanced B-1 bomber is expected to be taken out of the nuclear war plan on Sept. 30, and receive only conventional bombing missions.

Once the B-61 earth-penetrating nuclear bombs come on line with the B-2, the Pentagon will scrap its decades-old B-53 nuclear bombs, the senior officer said. He declined to disclose exactly how many of the B-61 weapons are in the U.S. arsenal, saying only that "tens" will be available and that "tens" of B-53s will be retired. Norris said he believed roughly 30 to 50 B-61s are available.

At the beginning of the B-2 program in the early 1980s, the Air Force had hoped to build 132 of the aircraft. That number was reduced to 75, and later to 21. Critics of the planes point to their high cost, but supporters claim the price is worth it given the B-2's 16-bomb payload and the fact it can deliver precision-guided munitions as well as the bunker-busting bombs.