B-2'S ABILITIES UNDER DISPUTE AT PENTAGON.

Byline: Eric Rosenberg Hearst Newspapers

Despite warnings from a senior Pentagon official that serious technical flaws render the $2.2 billion B-2 stealth bomber vulnerable to enemy missiles, the Air Force says the jet can fulfill its mission of flying without escort planes to bomb heavily defended areas such as Iraq.

The problems prompted Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's director of weapons testing, to conclude last month that the Air Force shouldn't send the bomber into combat without the protection of other jets dispatched in combination - a ``package'' - with the B-2.

The other planes - escort jets constructed of aluminum, plastic and steel - would show up on enemy radar, thus canceling the B-2's stated mission of sneaking in undetected, dropping its bombs and getting out.

Despite Coyle's warning, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Goslin, the commander of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, insists the B-2 could fly solo if necessary.

``I am confident that this airplane can do its combat mission wherever we need to send the airplane,'' Goslin said in an interview. ``At this time, we can deploy either by ourselves or in a package to a dense environment,'' referring to the airspace of an enemy with sophisticated air defenses.

Coyle's warning was seconded by Brig. Gen. Bruce Carlson, the Air Force's director of global power programs, who said the B-2 isn't ready for solo missions over Iraq.

``I certainly wouldn't want to send the B-2 to Baghdad today, or the F-117 (stealth aircraft) for that matter, without support,'' Carlson said. ``I would use defensive suppression and support aircraft because it's an expensive platform and I haven't used it in combat before.''

When the B-2 was first made public in the 1980s, the Pentagon tried to overcome ``sticker shock'' expressed in Congress by arguing that the B-2 would need few, if any, accompanying aircraft because it could fly undetected through air defenses.

The technical setbacks center around two electronics systems that help B-2 pilots avoid enemy missiles and plot flight routes over enemy territory coupled with lingering concerns about how moisture might degrade the bomber's much-touted ability to be invisible to radar.

Coyle told Congress last month that the combination of problems ``gives us concern about (the plane's) overall survivability. It would be prudent to use the B-2 as an integral part of a force package until the survivability issues have been resolved.''

A ``force package'' for a B-2 mission would likely involve other planes like the F-15 Eagle fighter or F-4 Wild Weasel radar-jammer to defend it against hostile planes and air-to-surface missiles.

The Air Force's other stealth jet, the F-117, wouldn't be used to protect the B-2 because it neither jams radars nor protects against other aircraft. It is mainly a bomber, though much smaller than the B-2.

Carlson said the electronics systems will be fixed over the next three years with a series of software upgrades.

``We don't see this as a crisis. These are things that we knew about - obviously they weren't things that we wanted,'' he said.

One system, the B-2's defensive management system, is supposed to tell the flight crew what types of enemy anti-aircraft missiles are on the ground and then identify their locations on a map. The system is manufactured by Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed-Martin Corp.

However, the DMS can't identify certain missile threats and is not always able to tell the flight crew where the threats are located, according to a senior Pentagon official.

``This is a bad thing because a pilot now could fly into a threat not knowing it's there or avoid one that wasn't there by mistake because the equipment misled him,'' said the official.

The problems have Pentagon officials particularly concerned about whether the system can accurately locate mobile anti-aircraft weapons, a growing threat around the world.

The other flawed system is known by its acronym AFMSS, for Air Force Mission Support System, which is used to plot a route for the aircraft around the anti-aircraft weapons on the ground. It also is built by a Lockheed-Martin unit.

``The DMS (is) not giving the right warnings and that in turn needs to work with the mission planning system,'' the senior official said.

Robert Murphy, a national security expert at the General Accounting Office, said the AFMSS system is ``at the heart of how you do a mission. It is supposed to tell you how to get from point A to point B.''

Larry Hamilton, a spokesman for Northrop Grumman, declined to discuss the problems, citing the classification associated with bomber program.

The newly disclosed problems come only weeks after a report from the General Accounting Office concluded the B-2 is ``more sensitive to climate and moisture than expected.''

``Testing indicated that B-2s are also sensitive to extreme climates, water and humidity - exposure to water or moisture can damage some of the low-observable enhancing surfaces on the aircraft,'' the report said.

As a result, the B-2 requires extensive maintenance after each flight and the Air Force cannot deploy the bombers overseas until it constructs or locates specialized hangars.

In response, Air Force officials invited the news media to watch as a B-2 was hosed down in front of televisions cameras to show that water doesn't damage the plane's radar-evading ability.

But Coyle told House lawmakers last month that while the B-2 can operate in the rain, ``this should not be taken to mean that flying in the rain is without consequences.''

The Air Force maintains that the GAO based its conclusions on old data and that any moisture problem is being solved.

Despite the technical troubles, Coyle was optimistic about the stealth bomber.

``We think there are some important things that ought to get fixed, but it is a good, all-weather, stealthy precision attack bomber,'' he said.

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Photo

PHOTO The B-2 bomber's bat-winged design is intended to deflect enemy radar.