Norman D. Dicks: “It is so true. The gentleman is exactly correct. When you have this standard package in our chart, the value of stealth…”

“It is so true. The gentleman is exactly correct. When you have this standard package in our chart, the value of stealth, it was like I think 76 airplanes and 145 crewmen that went in, in the most heavily defended targets in Iraq, and they got turned back. They could not do the job. So they had to come back. We risked all those lives. We did the same thing the next day with eight F-117's, which were equivalent to one B-2. So one B-2, with two pilots and the 18 on, the 16 2,000-pound bombs, each one of which is individually targetable, could have done the job. They would have gotten the job done that the eight F-117's were able to accomplish but the huge package of nonstealthy airplanes were not able to accomplish. The other thing is, as the gentleman points out, because the weapons are less expensive, and because we do not want to lose any lives, I mean, stealth makes it possible for our kids to go in against the most heavily defended targets, take them out and come out alive.”