DATE: Saturday, September 13, 1997          TAG: 9709130313

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, MO.      LENGTH:   74 lines

AIR FORCE DENIES REPORTS ABOUT FRAGILITY OF B-2 BOMBER

Smarting from a volley of criticism of its B-2 stealth bomber, the Air Force fired back Friday in a public relations offensive. Target: skeptics who doubt the $2 billion warplane is worth its wings.

Reporters and TV crews were given extraordinary access to the B-2, including a chance to sit in the two-seat cockpit, although the electric power was turned off to hide classified aspects. It was the first time reporters have been allowed in the cockpit, officials said.

``We have a capability today that nobody else has,'' Brig. Gen. Thomas Goslin said en route to Whiteman from Washington with a group of reporters, photographers and cameramen for a close look at the B-2 Spirit, which was developed in the 1970s and '80s as a super-secret Cold War project.

But Goslin and the Air Force also have a public relations problem nobody else has.

Designed to dodge enemy radar, the B-2 is attracting domestic flak. At stake is not only the plane's public image but also a crucial decision in Congress about whether to produce more.

``The public is being led to believe it's not ready to go,'' Capt. Jeff Long, a B-2 pilot, said as he stood beneath one of the odd-shaped planes, which has 178-foot wings that make it as wide as a conventional bomber though it is as short as a fighter. ``Our whole mission is to go somewhere and not be seen. We're ready to go.''

The latest criticism came from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, which reported in August that the warplanes, which can drop either nuclear or conventional bombs, must be ``sheltered or exposed only to the most benign environments - low humidity, no precipitation, moderate temperatures.''

Thus was born what the B-2's manufacturer, Northrop Grumman Corp., calls a myth about the world's most expensive airplane: that it's a fair-weather weapon that can't get rained on.

``It's not true,'' said Goslin, who is commander of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman, the only Air Force unit that is flying the B-2. ``We know the plane is combat-ready right now. I don't worry about flying through weather to go to combat.''

If it suffers at all, it is from too-high public expectations, Goslin said. ``It's like saying, `How come my fifth grade kid can't do calculus?' ''

He and others acknowledged, however, that the Air Force has discovered that maintaining the B-2's stealthy qualities has proven harder than expected. Training the maintenance people also has been slower than once planned.

In a show-and-tell tour Friday, TV news cameras were positioned to film a dark gray B-2 doing ``touch-and-gos'' on Whiteman's 12,000-foot runway, and reporters were allowed to sit in the cockpit of a B-2.

Goslin acknowledged that as recently as several months ago, the B-2 had significant maintenance problems with some of the radar-absorbing materials on its surfaces that give it the ability to evade detection by enemy forces.

Goslin said a special tape that seals joints and seams on the B-2's surfaces had a tendency to loosen during flight, requiring repairs afterward. Now that happens less frequently, he said, and this improvement was too recent to have been in the GAO report.

Goslin insisted that rain has no effect on the B-2's stealthiness, but others interviewed at Whiteman on Friday were less absolute in their descriptions.

Brig. Gen. Bruce Carlson, who is in charge of B-2 acquisition plans in the Pentagon, said heavy rain can cause ``discrepancies'' that require repair. Maj. Eric Single, a B-2 pilot, said that even light rain can have an adverse effect on the special surface coatings, although moisture does not make the plane less capable of evading enemy radar.

Lt. Col. Greg Biscone, commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Whiteman, said he was disappointed that some people think the B-2 is a lemon.

``It's not perfect, but it's awesome,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

A B-2 bomber does a ``touch-and-go'' landing at Whiteman Air Force

Base, Mo., Friday as the military rebutted claims the craft can't

get rained on.

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