Russian Cargo Plane Goes Down in Siberia - Plane Crash Claims 46 Lives
     Moscow, Dec. 6 - A military cargo plane crashed into a Siberian
 town today minutes after takeoff and burst into flame, killing all 46
 people aboard, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
     The An-124 went down in the streets of Irkutsk-2, Russia, but
 there were no immediate reports of casualties among residents, the
 ITAR-Tass news agency said.
     Sixteen crew members and 30 others were aboard the four-engine
 plane when it crashed about eight minutes after taking off from an
 airport near the city of Irkutsk, about 2,600 miles east of Moscow,
 said Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Col Nikolai Baranov.
      Fire brigades and rescue teams were at the crash site, officials
 said.
      The huge jet was carrying two Sukhoi jet fighters when it took
 off at 9:44 a.m. local time. The aircraft was registered to the
 military transport service.
      There was no immediate indication what caused the crash. Weather
 conditions were good, ITAR-Tass said.
      The Russian defense minister has ordered a commission set up to
 investigate the crash, Baranov said.
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               B-1 bomber ready to make a comeback
     WASHINGTON - December 6, 1997 00:29 a.m. EST - There was a time
 when the B-1 bomber was the butt of Johnny Carson's jokes, an extra-
 ordinarily expensive aircraft bedeviled by so many problems that it
 became known as the "B-1 Bummer" in some quarters of the Pentagon.
     Calling the $280 million plane a too-costly flop, Jimmy Carter
 killed it. Ronald Reagan resurrected it, deeming it vital as a long-
 range nuclear bomber in America's battle plans against the Evil
 Empire, even though it remained lamed by an array of glitches.
     But the Cold War melted, taking the B-1's reason for being with
 it. Since then, revolutionary radar-evading technology has turned
 the once state-of-the-art aircraft into a monumental white elephant.
     Until now, that is. More than 20 years and $20 billion after
 its drawing-board debut, the B-1 has been reconstituted and reborn.
     The Nov. 17 deployment of two B-1B Lancers to the Persian Gulf
 marks the first time the plane has flown on anything but a training
 mission. And, if the ongoing standoff with Iraq over U.N. deadly
 weapons inspections worsens, the now conventionally armed bomber
 could finally see combat.
     Even if it doesn't, the warplane has found a new niche in the
 front lines of national security strategy. Now, said retired Air
 Force Gen. John Michael Loh, former commander of the Air Combat
 Command, "It is the backbone of our bomber fleet."
     That transformation is a result of changing global realities
 coupled with new defense needs, including that of the Pentagon to
 justify the existence of 94 huge, high-maintenance bombers gather-
 ing dust while the military budget withered, defense analysts said.
     "They've finally found a job for it," said Mike Vickers, director
 of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
 Assessments, a defense think-tank in Washington.
     Born during the Ford administration, the B-1 was conceived as a
 cutting-edge strategic nuclear bomber designed to penetrate Soviet
 defenses. Capable of speeds exceeding 900 miles per hour, ducking
 radar and flying across continents without refueling, the B-1s were
 to replace the trusty but aging B-52 bomber for heavy-lifting mis-
 sions of top importance.
     But from the start, bugs beset the Rockwell International-built
 plane, driving development costs so high Carter canceled it in 1977,
 choosing instead to upgrade B-52s with cruise missiles. After a long
 and rancorous national debate, Reagan reversed that decision in 1981
 and Congress ordered 100 of the sleek, swallow-winged planes to be
 built. The Air Force got its first B-1 in June 1985.
     The troubles continued. At one time or another, the B-1 was
 crippled by cracks in its landing gear, fuel tank leaks and faulty
 engines that fell out of the planes. Its lack of a de-icing system
 left the aircraft unable to fly over snow or slush. (???)  Engine
 snafus kept it grounded during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
     After the Soviet Union crumbled, some in Congress tried again
 to mothball the B-1, calling it strategically obsolete and an unne-
 cessary drain of $1 billion a year. Then the development of radar-
 evading "stealth" technology rendered the B-1 even more old-fashion-
 ed, as the revolutionary B-2 stealth bomber essentially usurped its
 nuclear role.
     Faced with a bulging inventory of the expensive Lancers, Presi-
 dent Bush decided to turn them into conventional combat bombers. To
 do so will eventually require nearly $3 billion more; so far, more
 than $1 billion has been spent to equip the B-1 with five new types
 of non-nuclear weapons. All 94 existing Lancers are expected to be
 refitted and ready to join the flying armada around 2001.
     When they are, they will have traded their original payload of
 28, 500-pound nuclear bombs for the capacity to carry, among other
 armament, up to 84 Mark 82 conventional 500-pound bombs.
     But it is the pairing of an armor-piercing cluster bomb with the
 B-1B that has vaulted it to the forefront of America's new battle
 plans.
     The bombs -- called CBU-97s -- are 1,000-pound "smart" devices
 that, once dropped, open up to release cylinders held aloft by
 parachutes. Inside the cylinders are anti-tank rockets that auto-
 matically target heat sources. Each B-1B can carry 40 of the cluster
 bombs, which contain 10 cylinders and 40 anti-tank rockets each.
     That kind of firepower could stop a column of enemy tanks in its
 tracks, at least for awhile -- a critical capability for the down-
 sized American military, which in the future may not be able to fight
 two large-scale conflicts simultaneously. By doing so, the B-1Bs
 could effectively buy time for the arrival of U.S. ground troops.
     "If you want to kill armor, I can't think of a better way to do
 it than with a B-1B," said Air Force Gen. Dick Hawley, commander of
 the Air Combat Command.
     So far, reports give the Lancer's performance passing marks in
 its new incarnation, although critics say it still is too costly to
 support, operate and maintain. Some in the Air Force also complain
 that the B-1B is overly vulnerable to enemy attack because it
 possesses no self-defense and requires fighters to accompany it
 for protection.
     Still, analysts such as Vickers say the B-1B carries an important
 advantage -- the ability to carry a large payload of bombs.
     "The bomber is actually living up to its limited billing," he
 said.
 By LISA HOFFMAN, Scripps Howard News Service.
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 I do not believe all of the comments by Ms Hoffman.. Her bosses
 fought the B-1 and then cried the blues when 1500 Avco workers
 were laid off upon the completion of the subcontract for wings.
 Did you ever hear of de-icing equipment needed to "fly OVER slush
 and snow?" Jim
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