Skunk Works

Other Voices

Zbigniew Brzezinski

(National Security Adviser to President Carter)

When our administration canceled the B-1 bomber program, we knew we would be attacked by political opponents who were unaware of tremendously promising breakthroughs there on stealth technology. Both developments rendered nearly obsolete everything about the B-1, and we in the administration saw that they represented the way of the future, that they were viable, and given what we knew about the state of play in stealth projects and the record of performance by the Skunk Works, that they were really going to perform as advertised. But because of national security, we were unable to reveal to the public the existence of stealth and exploit the strategic facts about it that influenced the decision we made to cancel the B-1. Planning had already begun on a whole new series of stealth bombers and fighters that would revolutionize aerial warfare. So we bit the bullet and just took the heat. This was similar to a political problem faced twenty years earlier by President Eisenhower, who was unable to reveal the U-2 overflights of Russia to answer the charge of a so-called missile gap made against him in the 1960 election campaign.

Leapfrogging technology was the name of the Skunk Works’ game, and that occasionally created political problems for both the administration and Congress. That amazing Skunk Works organization was unique in the world in its ability for stretching far beyond that which was thought to be feasible and enjoying a success rate unprecedented for advanced technology projects. Now, in the post–cold war era, we are likely going to be involved in a variety of future conflicts in which overflights for intelligence purposes and for military operations will be of enormous importance. That access is going to have to be surreptitious and undetectable, and clearly the Skunk Works will be continually called upon to keep leapfrogging technology in behalf of the national security. But how we will be able to maintain the tremendously high standards of the Skunk Works during a new era of downsizing defense and intelligence appropriations is really outside my realm of expertise. What is clear is the nation’s need to keep this kind of unique operation intact and thriving far into the foreseeable future. Downsizing notwithstanding, it simply must be done.

16 DRAWING THE RIGHT CONCLUSIONS