Congress listens happily because, as the Stealth illustrates, there is nothing like a new manned bomber for dumping gravy on the folks back home.

Attacks against military targets, if desired, still demanded the use of a manned bomber.

However, that game, too, was changing drastically, and big manned bombers were becoming obsolete in the new age of guided missiles.

Nuclear weapons theorists had speculated about how to integrate the flexibility of the manned bomber with the invulnerability (in the attack) of the ballistic missile.

Through the 1950s the manned bomber remained the primary method of delivering a nuclear bomb.

A 1963 study stated "Long-range technical considerations, of course, militate against the perpetuation of the manned bomber".

Some experts, meanwhile, question the survivability of any manned bomber, stealthy or otherwise, during a nuclear war.

The B-2 was also seen as a counter to Soviet deployment of mobile missiles, which only a manned bomber could find and attack.

He later stated that a manned subsonic bomber provides the "best value" to meet the required range and payload performance by 2018.

What we must not do is repeat what happened with our last manned bomber.