Ron Dellums in Two Paths, by John Kasich

On Homeland Security: 1980s: B-2 didn't make financial sense nor strategic sense

The B-2 was supposed to be an essential weapon in our Cold War arsenal. I didn't quite see it that way. I couldn't justify or even understand the projected long-term cost of a single plane (nearly $2 billion). It wasn't just that the program didn't make financial sense; it didn't make strategic sense, either. Why spend all that money for a bunch of planes capable of dropping multiple nuclear bombs over the Soviet Union when one bomb would certainly get the message across? It was the very definition of overkill.

I joined with Ron Dellums, a liberal Democrat, and together we set about trying to pare back the B-2 proposal, and perhaps redirect some of those monies to the development of standoff weapons, which we believed would be more strategically effective as well as more cost-effective. We were never out to kill the proposal entirely; in response to an initial proposal of 132 bombers, we proposed a more modest plan of just 13. [After years], the Pentagon agreed to a compromise of 20 bombers

Source: Two Paths, by John Kasich, p.101-2 Apr 25, 2017

The above quotations are from Two Paths America Divided or United by John Kasich. Click here for main summary page. Click here for a profile of Ron Dellums. Click here for Ron Dellums on all issues.
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