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example hi it proposeu hiiiuishould not be funded and would be wasteful of taxpayers' money On dune 10 President Jimmy Carter received a congressional delegation at the White House and said nothing unkind about the B-l born ber He did not say that he had changed his mind. One senator thought the president was objective on the subject But several thought he seemed to have swungt i ^ t tv tllil tin 0*1program and his 'objective ' position as a president measures the difference between a man out of office who is not under direct lobbying pressures and a man who is in the White House and is a target for every lobby with a self-interest stake in the B-l bomber In this case there were seldom if ever so many and such powerful lobbies interested for obvious sell-’Mr. [’resident, you just don't understand how Congressworks.’ ”tine profits on that weapon The Air Force has asked tor 244 of these bombers at a probable cost of about $100 million per plane, or about $25 billion for the lot of them Then there would have to be tankers to refuel them in the air to give them sufficient range And add the cost of the weapons. The total cost of the B 1 weapons system could run anywhere from $50 to $100 billion Never has so much money been involved in building a single weapon.Rockwell International has the rie* velopment contract on the plane The work is largely being dc.iC in the Los Angeles area The engines would be built by General Fleetric at plants in the Cincinnati area Promoters of the B-l point out, probably correctly, that 500 subcontractors located in 48 states would benefit from the program Thus the B-l program is of first importance to two major corporations, Rockwell International and General Electric It is of first im port ante to the unions whose members are involved It is of first importance to the city of Los Angeles and the states of California and Ohio, and to all other states which can expect to gef a significant slice of the subcontracts Finally, the B-l program is of firs' importance to the V S Air Force because the existence of the manned bomber is the la‘ best reason for maintaining a separate Air Force If the manned bomber were to disappear from the American arsenal the rationale tor having a separate Air Force would largely disappear The Air Force stresses the sacrosanct nature of the ‘triad'' on which American deterrent power rests The triad means the Polaris-Posei-rion submarines which the Navy opera***' ’he Mmutemar. missiles in hardened silos, and the manned bombers of the V S Air Force Anic deterrents so, to be safe, the United States should continue to have three But which of the three is most likely to become technologically obsolete in the foreseeable future0Some experts think the Minute-man in its fixed silo will soon be on its way out and have to be replaced by a lighter, movable substitute The Soviets, of course are doing their best to learn how to track down American missile bearing sub marines, but so far have failed And the Soviets are working on an inter ceptor plane which could in theory fly over a B 1 bomber and shoot ft down from aboveThe strongest argument against the B-l is that the new cruise missile w ill he able to do the same job a B-l could do at one hundredth the cost m money and no livesThere are several alternatives to the B-l bomber All others would he cheaper. Probably the cruise missile alternative would be better in n respects. But it does not by its*!: justify a separate Air Force Another substitute which would support the separate Air Force case would be to continue with the present B 52 in improved and updated formBut no substitute would produce anything like the profits or the jobs of the B-l programBest guess is that Carter will go for at least a shor'ened and slowed down B-l program to keep Rockwell International going to avoid throwing 30,ftOft persons o it of work in the Los Angeles area, and to satisfy a bowerful bloc of senators and congressmen whose constituents have a stake in the outcome[Tactical politics make it more difficult by the day for Carter to seethe flaws in the B-l But it probably will he the most expensive make-work program since the great pyramids of Egypt.
Newspaper Details
San Rafael Independent Journal
San Rafael, California, US
Tue, Jun 21, 1977
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Oakland P.
CA, USA 07 Nov 2023
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