Strategic Bl bomber unveiled by U.S.
NZPA-ReuterPalmdale, California The United States Air Force has unveiled the first of 100 new strategic 818 bombers it intends to build which will be able to deliver conventional and nuclear weapons on Soviet targets. Ceremonies marking the completion of the first 818 were set to go ahead at the manufacturer’s plant at Palmdale, near Los Angeles, in spite of the crash of an older prototype Bl in a test flight. One crew member was killed and two others were injured. Rockwell International Corporation will build the BIBs at a cost of $28.3 billion. The aircraft will replace the Air Force’s aging 8525, the country’s premier bomber for more than 30 years but now considered vulnerable to Soviet defences. Air Force officials said the crash of the older BIA at Edwards Air Force Base would not delay plans to test fly and build the new
1300 miles an hour (2100 km/h) bombers, with all 100 aircraft to be in service by 1988. The BIA made • its first flight in 1974, but President Carter cancelled the programme when he took offjce. President Reagan revivied it as part of his plan to “rearm America” in the face of what he has called an unrelenting Soviet military build-up. Mr Reagan’s Democratic challenger for the Presidency, Mr Mondale, has pledged to kill the Bl programme, if elected. The Air Force officials said the older modified Bl crashed while on a lowaltitude, low-speed trial flight to test its ability to slip through enemy radar by ground-hugging manoeuvring. Mr Mondale, and Mr Carter, have opposed the Bl on the grounds that it is not needed because of the development of a new advanced technology, or “Stealth,” bomber designed
to go into service in the early 19905. The Stealth is being developed with technology and materials to make it almost invisible to enemy radar. Critics say that by the time the 818 is built and a Eart of the Air Force, the etter Stealth bomber will be ready, making the Bl obsolete almost as soon as it is in service.
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Press, 10 September 1984, Page 12
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348Strategic Bl bomber unveiled by U.S. Press, 10 September 1984, Page 12
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