F-22 Albatross, The Fight to Keep the World’s Most Expensive Puddle Jumper on the Public Dole.

F-22 Albatross, the World’s Most Expensive Puddle Jumper.

“(A) vote for continuing F-22 production is a vote to decay pilots’ skills, to deny them a truly great fighter, to shrink the number of pilots and planes we can field, and to reward Congress’ unending appetite for pork. The new 2010 Defense Authorization bill should be vetoed if a single F-22 is added.” From Stop the F-22 NOW, on dodbuzz.com

(Washington, 14/06/09) The Obama administration formed an unusual alliance with ex-adversary Sen. John McCainJohn McCain by moving to eliminate $1.75 billion, Monday, monies recently inserted into the proposed 2010 defense budget for more fighter jets from Lockheed Martin.

Mr. Obama has promised to veto any defense spending bill that includes money for any more F-22's. The Republican from Arizona supports that position and warned that he may not have enough support to get his amendment passed.

Sen. Carl LevinCarl Levin ( D-Mich.), joined McCain in filing the amendment to cut the extra money for seven more of the controversial war-machines. The Senate Armed Services Committee last month narrowly approved the additional funding requested by Georgia Republican Saxby ChamblissSaxby Chambliss, while Levin, the committee's chairman, and McCain voted against the additional funds.

Elsewhere, the House last month voted to include a $369 million down payment for 12 additional fighters to its version of the defense bill. Chambliss and other lawmakers who represent districts where F-22 production jobs are at stake have lobbied hard to keep the program. Lockheed's primary manufacturing plant is in Connecticut and Georgia, with key parts of the plane also made in Texas and California.

Levin said he will seek to hold a full Senate vote on the F-22 amendment by noon Tuesday toward the goal of completing the defense spending bill by the end of this week.

The White House reiterated its promise to veto legislation that includes any money earmarked to continue production of the so-called radar-evading jets beyond their current production numbers of 187 planes.

President Barack ObamaBarack Obama wrote in a letter to McCain and Levin, "We do not need these planes – to continue to procure additional F-22s would be to waste valuable resources that should be more usefully employed to provide our troops with weapons that they actually do need."

McCain said on the Senate floor Monday that he will strongly recommend the administration veto the defense bill if lawmakers don't act to end F-22 production.

Mackenzie Eaglen, a research fellow for the conservative Heritage Foundation, says the effort by McCain and Levin likely will be defeated in Tuesday's vote.

There is solid support among Democrats to continue F-22 production over concerns about a gap in the nation's tactical air capabilities and shrinking industrial base, Eaglen said.

Even if funding is included in the Senate bill, it still must be reconciled with the House version, a process that won't be completed until later this year.

Supporters of the F-22 have said capping production at 187 aircraft is too risky with potential adversaries like Iran, North Korea and China looming.

McCain disputed such arguments. Focusing on timely delivery of the Joint Strike Fighter, also built by Lockheed Martin, is in the best interest of the country and will be a weapon system that can meet future threats, he said.

Other detractors have pointed to the very questionable facts and numbers put out by the supporters. The 147 Million $US they put on each model is what’s called in the industry as the flyaway price – the cost up to the moment the machine rolls off the assembly line. As calculated by Winslow Wheeler for counterpunch.org: Factoring in "modification of aircraft," "Operational System Development," "advance procurement," and other monies needed, the amount will come to $213 million each.

According to dodbuzz.com, The truth is that the F-22s weaken US air power. Study after study show that pilot skill dominates all other factors in winning or losing air battles. The F-22’s maintenance costs have (forced) the Air Force to slash in-air pilot training. In the 1970s, fighter pilots were getting 20 to 30 hours a month of air combat training. Today, F-22 pilots get 10 to 12 hours. High tech theorists claim flying can be replaced by ground simulators. Experience teaches that simulators can be used for cockpit procedures training but, by misrepresenting in-air reality, they reinforce tactics that could get pilots killed in real combat.


Defense Secretary Robert GatesDefense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a separate letter to Senate leaders Monday, said the Joint Strike Fighter is "more capable in a number of areas such as electronic warfare and combating enemy air defenses."

The United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, among other labor groups, recently sent letters to lawmakers urging continued support for the F-22. They cited the 25,000 high wage, high-skill manufacturing jobs that could be lost across 44 states.

McCain said the rationale for keeping a weapon system should never be about job creation, but about defending the nation. This becomes a further strike against the F-22 when considering, as dodbuzz.com has, “Not a single F-22 has flown in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would be foolish to deploy them since there is no enemy air force to fight against. To send F-22s as a bomber — at three times the operating cost of F-16s that are already bombing over there — would be just another drag on the war effort.”

The extra money would threaten to extend production of the F-22 beyond the 187 aircraft already committed to and that Gates insists are needed. Gates has also argued that buying any more of the jets will undermine the Pentagon's ability to increase the size of U.S. ground forces and purchase gear for fighting unconventional wars against insurgents.

In the final analysis, the best defense that any nation can enjoy is from the active participation of its citizens, and not the continued bailing out of the Big Business pillar of the industrial/military complex, an unhealthy relationship that has hurt America’s position in the worldwide community, from the cold war days to the present.