Planning for life after the B-2 ebb tide

Editorial Focus: In anticipation of the fadeout of the B-2 program, the Antelope Valley must accelerate its efforts to attract new military and civilian endeavors to this community.

In the early 1950s and throughout most of the 1980s there was a strong flow of aerospace work into the Valley.

But, in 1957, an ebb tide carried away many of the jobs. Since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics "fell apart like a cheap watch" in the late 1980s another ebb tide occurred, washing away some of the aerospace jobs.

The "cheap watch" simile comes from Col. Charles B. DeBellevue, commander of the 95th Air Base Wing, Edwards Air Force Base, who spoke at the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday.

At Edwards, the B-2 bomber and the C-17 transport test programs are ebbing, but the F-22 fighter test program is expected to arrive in 1997.

Our congressional representatives are still fighting to gain extension funding for the B-2 production run, which has been capped at 20 aircraft.

B-2 congressional supporters have been working diligently to expand the stealth bomber fleet to 40 aircraft, but a newly released report from the Institute for Defense Analysis argued that a combination of B-2s, B-52s and B-1Bs would be more cost-effective than more B-2s.

A visitor to Air Force Plant 42 earlier this year Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's under secretary for acquisition and technology, wrote:

"The planned force can meet the national security requirements of two nearly simultaneous major regional contingencies for anticipated scenarios and postulated excursions."

The translation from that bureaucratese is:

"We've got enough planes to fight two wars at the same time."

While the Valley Press and congressional B-2 backers may quarrel with that high-handed assessment, the fact is that the stealth bomber production program is likely to wind down before the end of the century.

That means that within the next few years, many of the 3,500 Northrop Grumman workers will lose their high-tech jobs and the pull of the aerospace ebb tide will be strong, indeed.

What military, community and congressional leaders must do is seek out other job-creating activities that can help stem the ebb tide.

Colonel DeBellevue told the chamber members that Edwards is constantly seeking to attract other defense and aerospace-related programs.

The entire Antelope Valley community must gear up to attract more projects - whether military or civilian - that can use the magnificent $12 billion worth of high-tech facilities at Edwards and at AF Plant 42, where the initial core of the Palmdale Regional Airport is already in operation.

For one example, our existing production buildings and hangars - where aircraft were manufactured and tested - could readily be converted into assembly-line factories for the hundreds of thousands of non-polluting vehicles that will be needed in the 21st century.

Nothing lasts forever and we must begin an expanded effort to prove that, for Antelope Valley, there is life after the B-2.