Lifting the ‘Spirit of California’ : Aerospace: Over 10,000 join Northrop christening of B-2. Lawmakers urge support for bomber program.

More than 10,000 people turned out Thursday for a ceremony at the Northrop Corp. plant to mark the naming of the second operational B-2 bomber the Spirit of California.

The large showing couldn’t have come at a better time for Northrop, which is seeking congressional approval of $150 million in the 1995 budget to keep the B-2 production lines intact.

At the ceremony, Northrop also garnered support for its so-called “insurance policy” from a pair of guests. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) said they favor not only the $150 million, but the government purchasing more than the current 20-bomber order.

With Congress now funding just 20 bombers, production is slated for completion in early 1998. Already, equipment used in the early stages of production is being put into storage and contractors are completing their work on the B-2.

“Already we have mothballed some tooling in our Palmdale plant,” Paul Tackabury, business development manager for Northrop’s B-2 division, said before the naming ceremony. “Tooling is being mothballed here, in Washington, in Texas and throughout the country.”

When Northrop began constructing the B-2s in the early 1980s, the plan was to build 132 of them. Congress later reduced the order to 75 and in 1990 it was further lowered to just 20 aircraft, with a price tag of $44.4 billion.

With a government commission preparing to study the mission of the armed forces, Northrop is hoping that more B-2s will be needed. A recent RAND Corp. study said that as many as 60 bombers may be needed and there has been growing support in Washington for more than 20.

Feinstein, who on Thursday was promised she would someday be taken for a ride in a B-2, said: “I make no bones about being a supporter of the B-2.”

As the military continues to shrink and the United States pulls out of foreign bases, she said, “the Air Force and long-range bombers will play an even more important role in our nation’s defense.”

McKeon was one of 22 members of the California Republican delegation who on March 16 sent a letter to the House Armed Services Committee urging that the $150 million be included in the 1995 budget.

At the naming ceremony Thursday, McKeon said there should be enough B-2s built to name one for every state “and even the territories.”

California was the name chosen for the second operational bomber (the first was named Spirit of Missouri since the B-2 fleet will be based there) because of the contributions the state has made to aerospace and to the B-2 in particular.

“This technological marvel could only have been brought to life in California,” said Lt. Gen. Stephen B. Croker, commander of Air Combat Command’s 8th Air Force. “We want to name this airplane after a place and a people whose strong spirit we’re very proud of.”