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DoD spends less than lawmakers want on F-22s

Under mounting pressure from Congress to spend $140 million to buy parts for 20 more F-22 jet fighters, the Defense Department agreed Wednesday to spend $50 million on parts for just four of the stealthy planes.

Reaction from Capitol Hill was mixed.

“It’s sort of a [screw]-you answer,” an aide to a senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said of the $50 million spending plan.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., contends that keeping the F-22 production line open “is a national security priority,” an aide said.

Spending $50 million on parts for four F-22s will not keep the production line open long enough for the next president and his defense secretary to decide whether to continue buying Raptors, he said.

“Sen. Inhofe believes we must keep it open until the F-35 line is fully operational and producing combat-ready aircraft,” which is expected to take at least five years, the aide said.

A spokeswoman for Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Congressional intent is to spend enough money on the F-22 program to keep it alive until the next administration can decide its fate.

“It is not yet clear whether DoD’s recent proposal will accomplish this goal,” she said.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he is “deeply disappointed” by the Pentagon’s decision not to spend the entire $140 million that Congress allocated for more F-22s.

The planes are the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world, he said, and their continued production “is essential to our national security.”

F-22s are assembled in Marietta, Ga., by Lockheed Martin.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his deputy, Gordon England, have agreed to keep the F-22 program going long enough for the next defense secretary to decide whether to keep building planes or end the program, according to a statement issued by the Pentagon on Wednesday.

The Air Force has 183 F-22s, some in service, others still under construction. Gates wanted to end the program at that number, but the Air Force wanted at least 381.

In a newly signed “acquisition decision memorandum,” the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, John Young, instructs the Air Force to “take steps to spend up to $50 million in advanced procurement associated with four F-22 aircraft.”

The money is to be used to buy aircraft parts, some of which — but not all — could be used on F-35 Joint Strike Fighters if the F-22 program is ended, a House aide said.

In written comments, Young said that Gates will include the rest of the funding for the four planes — estimated to be about $590 million — in an emergency war-funding bill that is expected to be sent to Congress in February.

Young said the $50 million he wants the Air Force to spend now will “provide a bridge to a January decision by the next administration.”

That would give Barack Obama and his defense secretary 10 days after the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration to decide whether to keep building F-22s.

Young’s acquisition memo comes nine days after six senators sent England a letter urging him “to obligate the entire $140 million for advance procurement on long-lead items for 20 aircraft.”

The senators, led by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., warned that spending less than $140 million and building fewer than 20 more planes “will cause suppliers to quickly stop F-22-related work, begin shutting down the lines and laying off” 25,000 high-tech workers.

The senators’ letter followed on the heels of a letter by four members of the House Armed Services Committee that called the $140 million expenditure “a prudent and necessary action to sustain F-22A production.”

Gates has not supported buying more F-22s and has pointed out to Congress that F-22s, the Air Force’s newest and most advanced fighter aircraft, have played no role in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.