Text Fwd: US Senators Push New Generation Nuclear Stealth Bomber

StopNATO

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4010959&c=AIR&s=TOP
March 28, 2009
Senators Push for Next-Generation Bomber
By William Matthews


-They envision future wars in "heavily defended airspace" where bombers will
confront "extremely sophisticated and deadly air defense systems."

The "next-generation bomber" is the latest weapon to acquire its very own
congressional delegation.

Six U.S. senators have sent a letter urging President Barack Obama not to kill
the bomber, which for now is little more than a notion in the minds of some Air
Force planners.

But the senators - all of whom represent states where future bombers might be
based - say the need for a new bomber is "urgent."

The bomber is expected to cost $10 billion to design and could be ready by 2018,
according to the Congressional Research Service.

However, recent news reports suggest that the bomber may be a casualty in the
2010 budget.

So the senators wrote to the president, "We believe termination of the Next
Generation Bomber would do tremendous damage to our nation's future ability to
project power abroad."

They envision future wars in "heavily defended airspace" where bombers will
confront "extremely sophisticated and deadly air defense systems."

Of existing bombers, B-52s and B-1s lack the stealth technology needed to evade
modern air defense systems. B-2s are stealthy, but there are only 16 of them,
the senators said March 26.

The senators are John Thune and Tim Johnson of South Dakota, David Vitter and
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.

They represent Ellsworth, Barksdale and Dyess Air Force bases, respectively.

The bomber joins the F-22 (44 senators), ground-based midcourse missile defense
(the Alaska delegation), Virginia-class submarines (Virginia and Connecticut
lawmakers) among the weapons with congressional custodians.
===========================
Stop NATO