One less bomber

The United States is currently building a fleet of at least 100 B-21 Raider bombers at a cost of $692 million each.

According to the Air Force, “The B-21 will form the backbone of the future Air Force bomber force consisting of B-21s and B-52s. Designed to operate in tomorrow’s high-end threat environment, the B-21 will play a critical role in ensuring America’s enduring airpower capability.”

OK, fine, but I have a modest proposal. Would 99 B-21 Raider bombers do? I don’t know how the Air Force arrived at the determination that they need at least 100 of these bombers, but could they get by with a minimum of 99? That’s just one less bomber.

Perhaps a high-level Air Force fellow might agree and say:

“You know, we really only need 99 B-21 Raider bombers to ‘ensure America’s enduring airpower capability.’ After all, in 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” We could save $692 million by producing one less bomber and give it back to the people who paid for it. We’ll start with the people of Alaska and see how it goes.”

And so the good governor of Alaska would unexpectedly get a check in the mail for $692 million, including a short note from a highly-placed fellow in the Air Force extending the denizens of Alaska his best wishes. Now what?

We have a few issues in Alaska that could benefit from $692 million. How about day care for example. In 2023 the Alaska Child Care Program Office Conducted a market price survey report. They ultimately surveyed a bit over half of the known 443 child care providers in the state. The survey found that these providers had around 8,900 kids in child care or on the waitlist.

In addition the surveyors found that the average annual cost of licensed day care was about $11,600. Because the survey only used a bit over half the providers, let’s say it missed about half the kids and call it 18,000 children in daycare or on the wait list. So, it would cost about $208,800,000 to pay for day care for every child in Alaska. Yeah, I know this is very back-of-the-envelope but, still, that bomber could pay for child care for every Alaskan kid that needed it for several years. An excellent use, in my humble opinion, of one less bomber.

Or how about housing. According to the Builders Patch Housing Count for 2024, Currently, the state is short over 6,737 low-income housing units. In addition, the 2024 Point-in-Time count, a federally mandated one-night snapshot, identified 2,686 people experiencing homelessness across the state of Alaska. So, back of the envelope, let’s say we need about 9,000 housing units for low-income families and homeless persons.

Based on recent purchases in Anchorage, the per-unit cost for hotel conversions averages approximately $65,000 per unit. And tiny homes cost about $50,000 each to set up in Anchorage. So, using the conservative figure of $65,000 per unit, one less bomber could buy 10,646 economy apartments or tiny homes. That’s enough to solve both the low-income housing and the homeless housing shortages in Alaska for a full year and then some.

Finally, a quick word on a free college education for Alaska residents. The annual cost for an undergrad in the UA system is around $24,400 including tuition, fees, double room, and meals. In the fall of 2024 about 18,800 students registered. One less bomber would pay all expenses for all those students plus another 9,560 students who may have been too discouraged to apply because they couldn’t scrape up the cash.

These are illustrations of the very real benefits Alaskans could achieve if the Air Force built just one less bomber. Perhaps we could paraphrase the Air Force statement and say that this never-built bomber “will play a critical role in ensuring Alaska’s enduring civilian capability.”

Lawrence D. Weiss is a University of Alaska Anchorage professor emeritus of public health and creator of Alaska's only master of public health program.