US House strikes F-22 funding from defense bill

Reuters ^ | Thu Jul 30, 2009

[Yo-Yo]

WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday killed new funding for the disputed F-22 fighter jet program as part of a $636.3 billion military spending bill that was expected to clear the chamber.

House action on a vote of 269-165 to bury additional production of Lockheed Martin Corp's (LMT.N) F-22 solidified an important victory for the Obama administration on procurement reform and nullified a veto threat over the matter.

[Yo-Yo]

Goodbye Raptor, we hardly knew ye.

[avacado]

More job losses! Good going Democrats!

[RC2]

How many earmarks and for what amount were part of this Bill? Along with that, who put the earmarks in the Bill.

[JohnBrowdie]

gates' presence at DoD has done nothing but give the obamites political cover to kill defense appropriations. and this story is hysterically misleading. the f-35 is not the "successor" to the f-22.

[devistate one four]

Well maybe the chinese will take it off our hands.

[b4its2late]

Industry leader Lockheed Martin Corp said this week it would cut 600 jobs, mainly in Owego, New York, as a result of the U.S. Defense Department's decision to terminate the VH-71 presidential helicopter program.

Aircraft maker Boeing Co said announced Pentagon cuts would claim 1,000 jobs in its defense business, affecting staffing at various U.S. work sites in missile defense and in the Army's Future Combat Systems modernization program, which is being opened to more competition.

Boeing, which has also been hit by the slump in commercial aerospace, declined to say whether the defense staff cuts were included in 10,000 jobs set to be pared companywide this year.

Congress is debating the Obama administration's fiscal 2010 defense budget request and has proposed changes, including adding back funding for some programs that the administration seeks to cut.

[SkyPilot]

I wasn't an F-22 fan - there was waaaay too much emphasis on it at the expense of other things in the DoD budget; and the fighter mafia had tunnel vision.

But in the big picture of things, the F-22 production line could have been kept open and jobs could have been saved for the cost of a day and a half of the cost of the "Stimulus Package."

[blackpacific]

An “important victory” for who? Iran? Red China? Every place this jet would have kicked a$$ is going to benefit from this debacle. Twenty years to develop a capability and less than 6 months to kill it. It makes me sick.

[avacado]

Thanks for the info. And those are professional jobs. Not Obama’s crappy shovel jobs.

[Secret Agent Man]

Obama’s goal of taking down the last superpower is still on track.

Can’t have world government if a superpower exists.

Can’t have a superpower without de-industrializing it.

[Red Steel]

Goodbye Raptor, we hardly knew ye.

In 1977, Jimmuh Carter killed the B-1.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan resurrected the B-1.

More Raptors delayed until 2010 when the rats get voted out of office. It's a dang good chance the House flips back to the Republicans.

[Dapper 26]

And those young enough will do well to remember this event. Eventually we’ll get into a pissing match with......say, China...where we’ll discover that our military cannot keep up with the advanced foreign aircraft. Many good men will die defending America and we’ll hear how America needs to “catch up”. It happened in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Thanks to President Reagan it didn’t happen in Iraq.
But....wait, maybe in 20 years YoBama will still be President and he’ll apologize and give China the rest of America. I’m glad I won’t see that........I’ll be “taking a pill”.

[Redleg Duke]

"...solidified an important victory for the Obama administration on procurement reform..."

No, that is an important step forward in the disarming of America.

[Yo-Yo]

In 1977, Jimmuh Carter killed the B-1A, a high altitude, high speed (mach 2+) strategic bomber. In 1981 Ronald Reagan ressurected the B-1B, a bomber that traded some of the B-1A's top speed (mach 1.25) for low level penetration. They may have looked similar, but the B-1B was not the same aircraft that Carter killed.

Likewise, the basic F-22A Raptor is a tremedous dog-fighter, and with it's extremely high ceiling and supercruise, it can be places that the Chinese can't expect or challenge.

But it's electronics were designed almost two decades ago, and could greatly benefit from systems designed for the F-35. In about four years, we could definately use an F-22B program that provides the Raptor with the F-35's sensor fusion, data link sharing, and helmet mounted cueing and system displays.

In some respects, the F-16s we sold to Saudi Arabia are more technically advanced than the F-22A.

[Yo-Yo]

Sorry, the F-16E/F Block 60 was sold to the UAE, not Saudi Arabia.

[org.whodat]

Some of you are nuts, we are not going to war with china, you cannot fight a country that can lose 100 million people and not even know they are gone. Someone has their ten foil hats on to tight. Besides that, wal mart would not have anything to sell.

[Red Steel]

The way I remember the B-1 that Carter killed that it too was going to penetrate the Soviet Union at low-level, and not as a high altitude strategic bomber. It was the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber that was to be the high altitude bomber, but the Pentagon killed that program because the Russian defense threat by SAMs and fighters was too great. Around that time, the B-52 changed tactics to go in low level to attack the Soviet Union to avoid the high altitude SAMS and to mask their approach using the terrain.

My recall of the B-1 that Carter killed is reflected below:

"The B-1 Lancer is a strategic bomber used by the United States Air Force. First envisioned in the 1960s as a supersonic bomber with sufficient range and payload to replace the B-52 Stratofortress, it developed primarily into a low-level penetrator with long range and supersonic speed capability. Its development was stopped and restarted multiple times over its history, as the theory of strategic balance changed from flexible response to mutually assured destruction and back again. It eventually entered service more than 20 years after first being studied."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-1_Lancer

The B-1B was updated but it was still the same basic A/C that Carter killed.

[KevinDavis]

People like you said the same thing before WWII... It is always best to be prepared..

[org.whodat]

Grow up, the year is 2009, those people have nuclear weapons. No one but no one is going to be fly a stupid dog fighting plane over their country unless you want to write off the western united states.

[Nachum]

The list, ping