AF Withholds Funds for B-1B Bomber, Citing Flaws

The Air Force, citing major problems with crucial components of its new B-1B strategic bomber, has withheld more than $250 million in payments to companies that produce systems for it, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.

The Air Force has discovered serious problems with the plane’s electronic defense equipment, considered critical to the bomber’s mission to penetrate enemy territory in wartime, officials told a House investigative panel Wednesday.

The supersonic bomber, a cornerstone of President Reagan’s program to upgrade the nation’s nuclear forces, also is troubled by defects in its terrain-following radar, flight controls and missile-launching system and has persistent problems with fuel leaks, officials said.

Progress Payments Denied

Those problems have prompted the Air Force to deny more than $250 million in progress payments since last spring to several companies, Gen. Lawrence A. Skantz, commander of the Air Force Systems Command, said after the hearing before the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

An Air Force spokeswoman said progress payments have been withheld from Eaton AIL Corp., Rockwell International, Boeing Military Aircraft Co. and General Electric Aircraft Engine Group.

“It’s behind and it’s going to be behind for some period of time,” Thomas E. Cooper, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for research, development and logistics, told the subcommittee.

“There is a major problem with the electronic-countermeasures equipment--the receiving and jamming devices,” he said.

Carter Canceled B-1B

The electronic-countermeasures system is critical to the B-1B, the nation’s most sophisticated bomber, which was developed for low-level, high-speed penetration of enemy defenses. It was the capability of that equipment that Reagan used as one of his major selling points in persuading Congress five years ago to revive the plane, which President Carter had canceled.

The problems could severely threaten the capability of the B-1B, which along with the Stealth advanced-technology bomber is expected to be a key part of America’s defense forces until the mid-1990s. The B-1B program is projected to cost $28.3 billion by April, 1988, when all 100 bombers are scheduled to enter the fleet.