PANEL TELLS CONGRESS B-2S NEED UPGRADES; PUSHES B-3 PLANS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

The Defense Department should spend $157 million on improvements to the B-2 stealth bomber this year and begin thinking about building a B-3 bomber in the next century, a panel told a congressional committee Wednesday.

The Long-Range Airpower Review Panel, chaired by retired Air Force Gen. Larry Welch, made the recommendations in a report that was heard Wednesday by the House National Security Committee's military procurement subcommittee.

The panel was appointed after a joint Senate-House committee decided last year to leave it to the Clinton administration to study the issue and decide how $331 million Congress appropriated for the B-2 program should be spent.

The panel concluded $174 million should be spent on the already planned fleet upgrades while using $157 million to begin such improvements as enhancing the aircraft's ability to use precision-guided weapons, and the construction of maintenance facilities and support equipment needed for operating the bomber from overseas bases.

``The additional $157 million appropriated by Congress should be focused on a combined initiative to improve B-2 low-observable-related maintainability and stealth performance, and on command and control communications needed to more effectively use the capability to strike multiple high-priority targets per mission,'' the report said.

The panel also said the Defense Department needs to begin thinking about how it will replace its aging bomber fleet. Alternatives to consider include building a variant of the B-2 or to develop more advanced technologies for a next-generation aircraft.

``Current plans do not adequately address the long-term future of the bomber force. The lead time for the next-generation aircraft is likely to be long, regardless of the approach selected,'' the report said.

The panel recommended against building more B-2s, saying money would be better spent on upgrading the fleet. The earliest a new B-2 could come off the assembly line would be 2005.

``If we can't get more B-2s built, we ought to upgrade the plane as much as possible,'' said David Foy, spokesman for Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, whose district includes the B-2 assembly and modification plant in Palmdale.

McKeon succeeded two years in a row in getting more funding for the B-2 program, but has been thwarted in his efforts to reopen the bomber production line.

Production of the bomber ended in the fall, but several of the aircraft are being modified to include improvements that were incorporated in later phases of production. The final modified aircraft should leave the assembly plant in mid-2000.