Rockwell B-1B back in service, troubles remain.

Rockwell B-1B back in service troubles remain

The U.S. Air Force has put the Rockwell International Corp.-assembled B-1B bomber back into service after its full grounding in mid-December, said a spokesman for the Strategic Air Command in Omaha, Neb.

The controversial aircraft, however, still has ongoing problems, particularly with its defensive avionics system, said SAC spokesman Lt. Col. George Peck.

He said the bomber was put back into service at four Air Force bases around the country on Feb. 6 after retaining rings in the fans of the aircraft's General Electric Co.-manufactured engines were replaced.

The remaining 97 B-1Bs in the original fleet of 100 were grounded in December, a month before the start of the Persian Gulf war, following what the Air Force described as two "catastrophic engine failures" in October and December.

It was the first time in the history of the aircraft that the Air Force used the word "grounded" in connection with the plane's problems. The aircraft has gone through at least two temporary "stand-downs" or "flight restrictions" since it went into service in late 1986.

Previous stand-downs have followed a malfunctioning wing and an incident in which one or more pelicans penetrated the skin of one of the aircraft, causing a crash that killed three crew members in September 1987.

Peck said the B-1Bs never were taken off alert status during its grounding, which means that if there was a national emergency, the bombers could have been used.

According to published reports, the modifications and improvements to the engines in the recent grounding cost the government about $8.8 million.

Peck said the B-1Bs are stationed at SAC facilities at Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas, Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, S.D., Grand Forks Air Force Base in Grand Forks, N.D., and McConnell Air Force Base near Wichita, Kan.

Peck said it is very unlikely that the B-1B will be sent to the Persian Gulf where B-52s, aircraft that went into service in the 1950s, have been used for high-altitude, long-range bombing missions.

"It (the B-1B) is only certified to carry one type of conventional weapon -- a 500-pound bomb. Its main mission remains as a long-range strategic bomber to penetrate Soviet air defenses," he said.

Peck and Mike Wallace, a spokesman for the Air Force's aeronautical systems division in Dayton, Ohio, said there continue to be problems with the aircraft's defensive avionics system, which helps protect the plane from air or land attack as well as from radar detection.

Peck and Wallace said the system, produced by Eaton AIL in New York, still does not meet Air Force specifications. Wallace said there is currently a question of whether funds will be available to bring the system up to specifications.

"If you ask me whether the plane can still penetrate Soviet air defenses, the answer is yes. But if the question is whether the plane can defend itself, the answer is not against all threats," said Wallace.

"Right now it's not a serious problem but the system still does not meet Air Force specifications," he added.

Maj. Dick Cole, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon, said it could take another $730 million to correct and modify the defensive avionics system of the fleet and currently are questions of whether funds will be available for the work.

Some defense analysts and Washington officials have questioned the viability of the B-1Bs, a controversial $28 billion project that was one of Rockwell's biggest military programs in the 1980s. About 10,000 Rockwell employees around the country worked on the project, including several thousand at the company's Los Angeles-area facilities. Rockwell is headquartered in El Segundo.

The B-1B was born in controversy before President Jimmy Carter took office in 1977. Then known as the B-1, the plane was designed to be a bridge aircraft between the B-52 and the then-contemplated B-2 stealth bomber, another troubled and controversial aircraft now being manufactured by Century City-based Northrop Corp.

The B-1B, a sleek, black aircraft with a swept-back wing design, does not have stealth capability but was designed to avoid radar detection by flying at high speeds at low altitudes by following the contour of the landscape.

Six months into his term, President Carter canceled the B-1 project but it was later resurrected under President Reagan's military buildup of the 1980s. The new versian of the aircraft was renamed the B-1B.

So far, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on making modifications to the B-1B fleet, according to defense analysts. Revenues at Rockwell, the main contractor on the project, have steadily declined in recent years, from $1.3 billion three years ago, to $795 million and then $530 million in its last fiscal year.