Back in 1995 - according to the New York Times on 06/15/95, in the article "House Votes $628 Million More for Pentagon's Missile Defense System" (obtained via LexisNexis) - Hunter along with a majority of GOP Representatives voted to increase the Pentagon's budget, which included more funding for B-2 bombers. Here's an excerpt:
The Administration suffered another setback late Tuesday when the House approved more money to buy more radar-evading B-2 Stealth bombers that the Pentagon says it does not want and cannot afford.
By a vote of 219 to 203, the House rejected an amendment to eliminate $553 million earmarked to buy radar components and fuselage sections for two additional planes.
Three years ago, the Bush Administration and a Democratic-controlled Congress agreed to buy a total of 20 B-2's for $44 billion, and then stop. Last year, at the request of Senator Sam Nunn, Democrat of Georgia, Congress approved $125 million to keep the production line open, but ordered no new bombers.
This year, however, an unusual coalition of conservative Republicans, who say more B-2's are needed to bolster a shrinking long-range bomber fleet, and liberal Democrats from Southern California, where the Northrop Grumman Corporation assembles the bat-winged Stealth bomber, have succeeded in reviving the B-2's chances.
The Pentagon and a number of Demorats turned their noses up at GOP Republicans like Hunter for voting to increase funding for these bombers, even though they didn't want them.
Fast forward to 2003, from the November 19th edition of the Financial Times (London), article "The technology is put to the test: There are mixed lessons from the Iraq war and the implications for weapons production, says Peter Spiegel ".
Read:
Long-range bombers, such as the B-2 stealth bomber and the B-1B Lancer, once seen as relics of the cold war because of their nuclear delivery missions, were heavily used for dropping handfuls of guided missiles on multiple targets in a single mission. In August, a B-2 dropped 80 individually-guided JDAM guided bombs at a US air force test facility.
"Operation Iraqi Freedom saw bombers account for less than 3 per cent of the strike sorties, but drop approximately 28 per cent of all munitions," says Andrew Krepinevich, an influential military analyst with the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
"The bombers' long range, extended on-station time, and large payload were key to the US ability to conduct sustained, mass, precision attacks against Republican Guard divisions."
And whaddya know? Less than a decade later, and it turns out the Pentagon and the military needed those B-2s more than they thought.
Hunter has butted heads with the Pentagon and the DoD on such matters before. More often than not, he's been on the right side in the end. And he's always keeping one eye on the horizon, not just on what's in front of him.
That's one of the reasons I'm supporting him for President.
Thanks for the ping. This article has cool stuff — Duncan Hunter, VTOL, military airplanes & resource strategy.
Yes! Like I’ve always said, the man has vision, and unshakable good sense! GO DUNCAN HUNTER! (The Mariners-Cubs game in 13th inning, still 3-3!)
Mariners just took the lead 4-3!!!!!
Ultra Sonic 007, nice job!! One thing people need to remember is that even in the Pentagon, there are liberals whose judgement we shouldn’t trust. Duncan Hunter is right far more often than he is wrong and I tend to trust his judgement more than most people in government. All his years in congress has shown him to be very consistent, along with his beliefs and ideals. No makeover necessary.