The House National Security Committee's addition of $331 million to the FY98 defense budget as a down payment for nine additional B-2 bombers could swell into a $20 billion commitment, Defense Comptroller John Hamre told House appropriators last week.
Hamre disclosed the figures during a closed hearing Wednesday of the House National Security Appropriations Subcommittee, the same day defense authorizers were adding the money, according to the edition of Defense Week being published today. The Senate Armed Services Committee did not add the extra dollars, so if the B-2 money survives an expected House floor fight, it will be negotiated in the House-Senate conference.
The Northrop Grumman Corp. has been distributing a business plan on Capitol Hill and in the Pentagon indicating it would cost $9.3 billion for them to build the aircraft starting in 2004. But the company has never claimed its production costs matched the entire price to the Air Force. Hamre said the comparable Pentagon figure is $13.8 billion.
The Pentagon also calculated spending another $500 million to build overseas operating bases, $1.7 billion in bomber upgrades and $4.7 billion for 20 years of support costs.
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