Bush Seeks Full Funding for Stealth : Congress Urged to Support Bomber at Cost of $70.2 Billion

President Bush asked Congress today to provide full funding for the stealth bomber, saying the United States needed maximum flexibility as it pressed ahead with arms control talks.

“It is a revolutionary plane with revolutionary technology and again I would strongly urge your support on that,” Bush said at the start of a meeting with Senate Armed Services Committee members.

$70.2-Billion Program

The Administration is backing a $70.2-billion program to build 132 B-2, or stealth, bombers at a cost of $530 million per plane. Bush wants $4.7 billion for the plane in the 1990 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Development of the aircraft, designed to evade detection by radar, has been plagued by problems, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) wants a freeze in production funds until the plane completes flight testing.

Other members of Congress want to kill the program completely, but both Nunn and Bush say that would complicate U.S. arms control strategy by weakening the military’s bomber arm.

Cites Security, Arms Talks

Bush was asked by reporters how he could justify the costly program in the face of rising social needs.

“The prime responsibility of a President of the United States is the national security of the United States and I’m determined to put forth a program that is sound in every way,” he said.

“That’s how I justify it and I also justify it because when you look at the full defense program, I want to have maximum flexibility as we have arms control negotiations,” the President said.

‘Back to the Drawing Board’

After the talk with Bush, Nunn told reporters that cancellation of the B-2 would leave the United States without an effective penetrating bomber by the late 1990s and “we’d have to go back to the drawing board on arms control.”

The stealth flew for the first time a week ago in a highly publicized test that was televised across the country. An earlier test failed when takeoff was aborted because of a faulty fuel gauge.

Bush also asked Congress to back his 1990 budget-year request for $4.6 billion for the “Star Wars” anti-missile system, which he called critically important. The House Armed Services Committee has already slashed the request by more than $1 billion.