More Delays on Stealth Bomber, Air Force Says : Defense: Northrop is about nine months behind schedule on flight testing the B-2, an official reveals.

Northrop Corp. is falling further behind schedule in flight-testing its B-2 Stealth bomber, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force John J. Welch Jr. disclosed in an interview.

The company is about nine months behind schedule for getting just the second of the B-2 aircraft off the ground, Welch said. At the same time, the test results that have been collected are encouraging, Welch said.

The first B-2 flew on July 17, 1989, about 18 months past its originally scheduled date. That delay resulted from a series of problems, some of which remained classified.

Since its first flight, the B-2 has flown 15 times in 15 months.

“We would like to get more productivity and results sooner in the test program,” Welch said. “Frankly, we had hoped to have both of these vehicles in the air by now.”

Northrop spokesman Tony Cantafio responded by saying the second B-2 was originally scheduled to fly last spring but that stretch-outs in federal funding and a strike by workers at subcontractor Boeing Corp. resulted in changes to the contract that shifted the flight date to late summer. Cantafio said the company, as a result, is only about one month behind the revised schedule.

Welch acknowledged that Northrop is continuing to suffer management and system engineering problems on the bomber program.

“Certainly the application of manufacturing technology and the execution of the program continue to be a challenge, and the challenge is reflected in the test schedule,” Welch said. The term challenge is often used by Pentagon officials when referring to problems.

Welch said the delays have not forced the Air Force to notify Congress that any of the program’s milestones have been missed. Congress set such milestones as a requirement for continued funding. Welch left it unclear how the program could be behind schedule and still not miss the milestones.

The Air Force has never fully disclosed its B-2 contract terms with Northrop. It is believed that the B-2 flight test program is being conducted under the firm’s full-scale development contract. That contract is the so-called cost-plus type, in which the government pays for overruns. It is not known how much the B-2 test delays have cost either Northrop or the government.

Despite the delays, Welch and Northrop officials have insisted that the controversial radar-evading bomber, which will cost an estimated $830 million each, does not have any significant technical problems.

Welch said the only “surprise” that has occurred so far in the flight testing involves the discovery that certain portions of the craft’s aft deck must be reinforced.

In addition, Welch said, “all the test results we have had to date are very encouraging.” He said the Air Force’s own test organization, as well as the General Accounting Office, agree that the test results are confirming the adequacy of the aircraft’s design. But no testing has occurred yet on the B-2’s critical ability to evade radar, the central purpose of the program.

After making its maiden flight, the B-2 was flown on a series of flights over the next several months and then on Nov. 22, 1989, was withdrawn from flight testing for about five months.

The test flights resumed last April 27, but after only two months of flying the bomber was grounded again and has remained in hangars at Edwards Air Force Base. Northrop officials have insisted that both groundings were part of the B-2’s “scheduled” test flight program.

Air Force officials have said in earlier interviews that the plane is grounded because it is being prepared for flight testing of its ability to evade detection by radar. The preparation apparently involves the sealing of tiny gaps on the aircraft’s skin, but why such work should require months of labor has not been made clear.

Aircraft industry sources say they can recall no similar groundings in such a large program in the past. Some flight test programs, such as that for the B-1 bomber, have been very active and involved weekly flights.