Exit B-1 Duncan, Enter B-2 Ike

By Ken Silverstein

I was traveling overseas during the midterm elections, but even from thousands of miles away it gave me great happiness to watch the G.O.P. crash and burn on Election Day. The only problem with the Republicans losing is that the Democrats won.

Sure, I have high hopes that John Conyers will shake things up on the Judiciary Committee. But except for a few other bright spots, the outlook grows bleak pretty fast. Take, for example, the vital House Appropriations Committee, where pork is brought to (unnatural, Frankensteinian) life. The new chairman, David Obey, has a good record on political reform and is a huge improvement over the outgoing chairman, Jerry Lewis. But Obey is going to be saddled with some very powerful and not-so-reform-minded Democrats who will likely end up heading key subcommittees, such as twin terrors John Murtha—king of defense pork, and Alan Mollohan—who is currently under FBI investigation for steering money to organizations headed by his pals in West Virginia.

And then there's Ike Skelton of Missouri, who is set to take charge of the House Armed Services Committee. Skelton's entire political career has been funded by the same assortment of defense contractors that footed the bill for outgoing chairman Duncan Hunter. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in the course of his career, Skelton's number 1, 3, and 4 patrons are “Defense Aerospace,” “Defense Electronics,” and “Miscellaneous Defense,” respectively. Career patrons numbers 2 and 5 are “Lawyers/Law Firms” and “Lobbyists,” plenty of which represent defense firms. Skelton's biggest individual contributor is Northrop Grumman, and he gets plenty of extra dough from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon.

Hunter was known for his ardent support of the B-1 bomber, but Skelton trumps him with his ceaseless advocacy for the B-2 bomber, which is an even bigger boondoggle. He even puts a picture of the B-2 at the top of his website—which makes sense, because the primary home for the B-2 is Whiteman Air Force Base, in Skelton's district, and because Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the B-2.

It was originally supposed to cost $500 million to produce a B-2, but that figure has soared to about $2.2 billion, making it the most expensive military aircraft in history (and more costly than its weight in gold). Besides the cost, the B-2's military utility is highly debatable. The vehicle is one of the Defense Department's “stealth” aircraft and supposedly invisible to enemy radar, but stealthiness is in the eye of the beholder. During the first Gulf War, the British Royal Navy announced, to the dismay of the Pentagon, that it had used 1960s-era radar to detect F-117 stealth fighters up to 40 miles away. And now Russia, the Czech Republic, and several Western European countries have built cheap systems that are supposedly able to detect stealth planes.

Furthermore, the B-2's stealth design requires that its missiles and bombs be carried internally (instead of on wing-mounted pylons as on conventional craft) and there are no external fuel tanks to extend the plane's range. All this translates into less room and less carrying capacity. The F-16 fighter delivers about one quarter of the bombing power of the B-2, but at $25 million is one hundredth of the B-2's price.

Given the Democrats' new authority in Congress, now would be the right time to take a close look at the bloated defense budget and start cutting programs that don't focus on real threats. But it's not likely to happen with Skelton at the helm. Good news for Northrop Grumman, bad news for us.

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