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Lawmakers to Air Force: Spend F-22 money now

In September, Congress budgeted $523 million so the Air Force could continue buying parts and supplies for the next batch of F-22 stealth fighters. But the spending provision included a restriction: The Air Force could spend no more than $140 million until the next president decides whether to keep buying F-22s or end the program.

Now lawmakers are fuming because instead of spending $140 million, the Defense Department has spent nothing.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, four senior members of the House Armed Services Committee said: Spend the money.

By not spending it, the Pentagon could kill the F-22, said Reps. Ike Skelton, Duncan Hunter, Neil Abercrombie and James Saxton.

“The obligation of $140 million for advance procurement of 20 F-22A aircraft is a prudent and necessary action to sustain F-22A production activities,” the quartet wrote.

If the money is not spent and the production line is shut down, it will cost an additional $500 million to restart, which “would effectively preclude the procurement” of additional F-22s, they said.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said the Defense Department is “committed” to keeping F-22 production alive so that the next administration can decide whether to continue or end the program.

But the Pentagon’s solution may be to ask Congress to include funding for four F-22s in the next war-funding emergency supplemental spending bill.

A spokeswoman for Skelton, who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said as of Friday the four lawmakers had received no reply from Gates. Hunter, the committee’s senior Republican, and Saxton, the top Republican on the air and land forces subcommittee, are retiring next month. Abercrombie, chairman of the air and land forces subcommittee, will be back to battle for F-22s next year.

The Air Force has ordered 183 F-22s, and would like to buy at least 381. But at $160 million apiece, the planes are enormously expensive. Gates has opposed buying more, and has pointed out to Congress that F-22s have not been used in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan and are not expected to be used in the type of conflicts the U.S. is most likely to fight.

The planes are popular in Congress, however, because building them creates an estimated 40,000 jobs.