http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/07/defense_appropriations_f22_c17_072009/
Reps move to counter proposed F-22, C-17 cuts
By William Matthews - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jul 19, 2009 12:55:49 EDT
Defense companies that once feared big changes with Democrats in control of the White House and Congress can begin to relax.
The House Appropriations subcommittee on defense unveiled its version of the 2010 defense budget Thursday, a spending plan that resurrects some big-ticket weapons that appeared doomed by the budget drafted by President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Under the command of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the subcommittee voted to keep alive the F-22 stealth fighter program, to buy more C-17 transport planes, to double the number of F/A-18 aircraft to be bought for the Navy, even preserve the disastrous VH-71 presidential helicopter program.
Despite resuscitating those programs, the subcommittee managed to trim $3.8 billion from Obama’s spending proposal. The subcommittee’s total is $636.8 billion.
The subcommittee voted in secret to approve the budget July 16, then Murtha offered explanations.
The budget is based on the need to balance short-term needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan against longer-term threats, Murtha told reporters. National military strategy still requires the military to be able to fight two major wars, he said.
Gates has been arguing for greater focus on the wars the military is fighting now and seems most likely to fight in the future, and less emphasis — and less spending — on notional wars that might occur sometime off in the future.
Thus, Gates called for ending production of the F-22 and the C-17, and for canceling the presidential helicopter. He also sought to end the vehicle portion of the Army’s Future Combat Systems, cancel the airborne laser and the pull the plug on the Transformational Satellite.
Murtha’s subcommittee is the third of four defense spending panels to overrule the White House and the Pentagon on the F-22. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees did so, as well.
Two panels — House Armed Services and Murtha’s subcommittee — have defied the president on the C-17. So far, only the House appropriators have opted to rescue the VH-71 presidential helicopter.
“These guys have basically said, ‘No, you can’t end any programs.’ ” said Christopher Hellman, a defense budget analyst for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Many lawmakers are loath to cut weapons programs because they are vital to maintaining jobs — and winning votes — at home, he said.
Murtha describes the subcommittee’s motivations differently: “We’re going to spend whatever we need to spend to take care of our troops and their families back home.”
The decision to keep spending on the F-22 — a plane Gates points out has never flown in combat — seems to put the House appropriators on a collision course with Obama. The president has vowed to veto defense bills that include F-22 funding.
But Murtha said, “It won’t come to that. We’ll work it out.” The House defense appropriation subcommittee voted to spend $369 million to buy parts and materials for 12 F-22s to be fully funded later.
Fighting Two Wars
Of Obama’s determination to end F-22 production, Murtha said, “I feel very strongly that they made a decision that leaves us at high risk” if the U.S. gets involved in two major wars at once.
“We want him to listen to us,” Murtha said, referring to Obama.
“We’re spending money as wisely as possible,” he said. “We’ll work with the White House.”
In the end, there will be no veto, he predicted.
Murtha acknowledged that a major defense review now underway might eliminate the requirement for U.S. forces to be able to fight two major wars simultaneously.
As for the presidential helicopter, Murtha said his subcommittee wants to spend $485 million to “operationalize five aircraft.” Obama wants to spend $85 million to shut the program down.
Murtha said that since the Navy has already spent $3.2 billion on the helicopter, “we’ve got to get something out of it. You can’t just cancel programs and not get something out of them. We’re trying to get at least a few helicopters that can be used by the president.”
The subcommittee added $674 million to buy three more C-17 cargo planes. Gates didn’t justify the addition, but he criticized the Defense Department, saying that unstable C-17 funding in past years has increased the cost of each plane.
The extra nine F/A-18s would add $495 million to the budget, increasing the total in 2010 to $1.7 billion. Murtha said the extra planes are needed because “we’ve got a shortfall down the road of F-18s.”
For Congress to add money to the defense budget for F/A-18s and C-17s “is not the way to do it. DoD should do it. We just felt it was necessary when we look at the threat,” Murtha said.
The subcommittee added $560 million to the budget to keep developing an alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. For years, lawmakers have wanted a second engine, arguing it is dangerous to have thousands of planes reliant on a single engine that could develop problems. And for years the Pentagon has resisted, argued that developing a second engine is a waste of money.
For the Navy, the subcommittee added two ships to the budget, for a total of 10 at a cost of $15 billion. The added ships include a Littoral Combat Ship, for a total of four in 2010, and a Joint High Speed Vessel, for a total of two.
“This is the first time since 1992 that the shipbuilding account was funded for 10 or more ships,” the subcommittee said in a summary of its spending bill.
The appropriators went further than Gates and Obama in cutting missile defense. The Pentagon requested $7.8 billion, the appropriators voted to spend $7.2 billion. Details of the cuts are not yet available, but a subcommittee aide said the cuts included reductions in test programs where tests were not ready to be conducted.
$3.8B Cut
The $3.8 billion cut from the Gates spending plan came in part from “programs that were lagging behind” and were not spending money as quickly as they had been expected to, Murtha said.
Cuts were also made in operations and maintenance spending, he said.
The cuts include:
* $26 million from more than $810 million for Army heavy tactical vehicles.
* $193 million cut from nearly $1.2 billion for Army medium tactical vehicles.
* $532 million cut from about $6 billion sought for F-35s.
* $211 cut from the $2.5 billion Future Combat Systems program.
* $200 million cut from the $3.2 billion Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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