B 2

The Ellicott City condominium complex stood ominously before Bill Woodcock the other afternoon.Of 30 households, only six had registered Democrats.That's not good news for Woodcock, a Democratic candidate running for a House of Delegates seat in a district that has solidly backed two Republican incumbents in the past three elections.Not only that, those Republicans hold powerful leadership positions in the Maryland General Assembly: Robert H. Kittleman, the minority leader, and Robert L. Flanagan, the minority whip.

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. -- Let it be known: Water does not melt the B-2 bomber.The Air Force went to great lengths yesterday to make that point about the $2 billion planes after an August report from the General Accounting Office concluded that moisture ruined the bomber's invisibility to radar.Maintenance crews at the B-2s' home base soaked one of the exotic jets with hoses and scrubbed it as Air Force brass assured reporters that the plane is combat-ready."We're going to finish washing the plane today and it's going to come out and still be fully mission-capable," said Col. Bill Hood, logistics group commander at Whiteman Air Force Base near Kansas City, Mo.The GAO, which is the investigatory arm of Congress, said in a report last month that the Northrop Grumman-built planes require extensive pampering and climate-controlled hangars to protect the surface materials that help them evade radar detection.

YOUR EDITORIAL OF Sept. 27, ''Congress' military spending spree," made a great deal of sense.The notion that the Pentagon cannot adequately provide for the nation's defense -- despite an annual budget of a quarter of a trillion dollars and despite the absence of urgent overseas threats -- really is absurd.There is much misallocation of resources in the defense budget, and Congress should do a far better job of controlling it.However, you err in singling out the B-2 bomber and Seawolf submarine as symbols of waste.

FOR A GLIMPSE of Congress at work, take a quick hard look at the $243 billion defense appropriations bill just approved by Senate and House conferees. The measure, richly deserving a presidential veto, contains two big-ticket items that cause fiscal indigestion not only among Democratic liberals but among Republican deficit hawks intent on balancing the budget.Before conferees assembled a few weeks ago, the Senate had gone on record against added funds for the B-2 bomber and the House had voted to reject a third Seawolf nuclear submarine.

I AM NOT one of those taxpayers who is constantly asking if I'm getting the biggest bang for my buck. A perfect example of my "who cares what my military hardware costs" attitude concerns a story I recently read in the New York Times by reporter Tim Weiner.Mr. Weiner wrote about a new report that revealed the $2.2 billion B-2 bomber, pride ofthe U.S. Air Force, is equipped with radar that cannot distinguish between a rain cloud and a mountain.Although it has failed many of its tests, 20 of the planes are being built at a cost of $44 billion.

WASHINGTON -- The B-2 stealth bomber has radar that cannot distinguish a rain cloud from a mountainside, has not passed most of its basic tests and may not be nearly as stealthy as advertised, according to a draft report by the General Accounting Office.The draft report by the independent auditing agency of Congress began circulating Friday in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, as Congress considered proposals for additional financing to build new B-2s.It was provided to the New York Times by a government official skeptical of the bomber's capabilities, who sought to make its examples of the B-2's inability to pass performance hurdles a part of the debate.

The Canadian Football League permitted two B.C. Lions to play in Saturday's game in Baltimore, even though it was an apparent violation of a league rule on player movement.Safety Sean Foudy, who blocked a punt that set up a B.C. touchdown, and cornerback Tony Collier are the players in question.The Lions attempted to place them on the waived-injured list before an Oct. 15 game at Saskatchewan, but filed too late. Both players went on the reserve list for the Saskatchewan game, then automatically to waived-injured.

WASHINGTON -- Twelve years since its development began during the Cold War, the first of 20 B-2 Stealth bombers entered the Air Force combat fleet yesterday with an uncertain mission and a price tag so expensive that proven bombers will be mothballed to make room for the high-tech planes.The Air Force, which fought hard to add the world's most sophisticated nuclear bomber to its arsenal, heralded the B-2's arrival at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri as the beginning of what the generals call a new era of "global reach, global power."

WASHINGTON -- In the end, after all the fights over the B-2 bomber, "Star Wars" and countless other defense programs, the entire $274 billion 1993 defense budget hinged on a single, simple question: Does the Air Force really need more F-16s?The Senate said no. The House said yes. And when negotiators from the two chambers got together in private to work out their differences, the test of wills sparked a bitter turf fight waged with old-fashioned horse trading and political hardball.The compromise bill for the year that began yesterday represents a 9 percent decline, adjusted for inflation, from the current $291 billion military budget, but cuts only $6.5 billion from President Bush's request.

If this thing sticks, Gennifer Flowers could get to sing the National Anthem at the Republican National Convention.Who needs the B-2 bomber? We have the Washington Redskins.