Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: portal!cup.portal.com!mmm@apple.com
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: How Many B-2's Are Enough ???
Message-ID: <8592@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 26 Jul 89 02:22:11 GMT
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From: portal!cup.portal.com!mmm@apple.com
In response to what I said, jkmedcal@uokmax.UUCP (Jeff K Medcalf) says:

> Except the Soviets are way ahead of us in IR technology (in fact, most if not
> all of thier newer fighters have infrared sensors on them, enabling an elec-
> tronically silent approach and kill), and may very well opt to up this lead,
> put large airborne infrared sensors in service in conjunction with satellites,
> and thus spend much less money developing a counter.  This would not be good
> enough to stop a fleet, but it could stop 5-10.

I disagree.  The Soviets cannot choose the time and place of a B-2 strike.
To build a system capable of dealing with 5 or 10 requires the same amount
of coverage and the same detection technology as building a system capable
of dealing with 132 B-2's.  Only the number of AA rockets changes, not the
number of sensors (IR-equipped planes and radar).  BTW, I heard on TV the
number of planes constructed or under construction is 13.

> Dropping biological weapons could be done by missile much more easily and with
> less cost.  Spies and their supplies, I would assume, have routes in and out
> which give them some cover and legitimacy (a record of shipment is better than
> something just arriving).  Assinating leaders is not as easy as it sounds when
> you're dealing with moving people and big aircraft.  We learned that in Libya.

No, B-2 would be used where it was necessary to drop the biological weapon
secretly, so that its origin would not be indicated and the fact of its
occurrence would not be immediately known.  Only one plane would be needed
for that.

Spies could always use some help.  Imagine if the B-2 can do a pick-up?
If the B-2 has VTOL capability, our spies would be free to roam virtually
any part of the world.

[mod.note:  Allow me to opine for the masses that the B-2 probably has
nothing even remotely like V/STOL capability.  I would suspect that
V/STOL requirements (such as vectorable thrust) are incompatable with
those of stealth.   I would likewise harbor doubts about the B-2's
rough field capabilities.  - Bill ]


Assassination?  What do you think spies are for?

> As for using B-2 against non-Soviet nations, that is simple:  few if any could
> build, or afford, a counter, and a small percentage of the fleet could have
> results all out of proportion to size.

So why not just build that small percentage of the fleet?  
Whipping Third World nations is the only time
these big expensive weapons get used!  And if the number we build is below the
threshold of a Soviet immune response, so much the better!  It'll be like
giving our intelligence agencies a ring of invisibility or a transporter beam!!