In a signal victory for President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the U.S. Senate voted Tuesday evening to end production of an advanced fighter jet that many independent military analysts have long considered a wasteful boondoggle.
The 58-40 vote to delete 1.75 billion dollars in funding to order seven more F-22 "Raptor" jet fighters as part of the 534-billion-dollar 2010 military authorization bill marked a major defeat for military contractors, particularly defense giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which have profited handsomely over the years from the plane’s production and have spared little expense in lobbying for its continuation.
And while battle over the plane’s fate is not yet over – the current version of the bill moving through the House of Representatives authorizes 369 million dollars for spare parts for 12 more planes after 2010 – a number of F-22 advocates admitted they face an uphill climb.
"There’s still a chance (of securing funding)," said Independent Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, whose state of Connecticut depends heavily on defense contractors, "but it’s hurting right now. It’s a real setback."
"I think it is a huge, huge victory for Obama and Gates and is a big step toward instituting a strategic shift within the Pentagon," wrote Max Bergmann, the deputy policy director of the National Security Network (NSN), on his blog for democracyarsenal.org.
"This vote was about whether the Pentagon would be able to institutionalize the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan and finally move out of the Cold War strategic mindset that still dominates," he added.
The margin of the vote – as recently as five days before, the bill’s floor manager, Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, was openly doubtful that the administration would prevail – also marked a significant political victory for Obama, who, for the first time since his inauguration, had promised to veto legislation if he did not get his way.
"I’ve never see a White House lobby like they’ve lobbied on this issue," noted Sen. Saxby Chambliss, whose home state of Georgia hosts Lockheed’s main F-22 manufacturing plant and who had led the effort to retain the order in the bill.
While the price tag for the seven planes was relatively small compared to other weapons systems, such as a fleet of new VH-71 helicopters, several defense program, a new Navy destroyer, the Virginia class submarine, that the administration wants to curb or eliminate altogether, the F-22 is perhaps the most important symbol of the kind of changes Gates, in particular, has argued are necessary to deal with the full range of challenges the U.S. military is likely to face in the coming years.
Gates and independent military specialists contend that far too much of the defense budget – which makes up nearly half of total global military spending – is devoted to hi-tech weapons systems designed for warfare against major global and technologically advanced adversaries which currently do not exist. Too little, by contrast, has gone to more mundane weapons and equipment useful in unconventional conflicts, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As Gates said in a speech recently, Washington should no longer "design and buy – as we have the last 60 years – only the most technologically advanced versions of weapons to keep up with or stay ahead of another superpower adversary, especially one that imploded nearly a generation ago."
"We must break the old habit of adding layer upon layer of cost, complexity, and delay to systems that are so expensive and so elaborate that only a small number can be built, and that are then usable only in a narrow range of low-probability scenarios."
"It is time to draw the line on doing defense business as usual," he told the Economic Club of Chicago Thursday, adding that "the more they buy of stuff we don’t need, the less we have available for the stuff we do. It’s just as simple as that. It ain’t a complicated problem."
Developed in the latter part of the 1980’s, the stealth F-22 – each of which costs 350 million dollars — is the world’s most-advanced fighter jet, designed for high-altitude combat of the kind that was contemplated in the event of war with the former Soviet Union. A total of 187 have been built or are currently on order.
In its 20-plus year history, however, it has never seen actual combat. Worse, it has suffered from a host of technical problems, not least of which is the fact that for every hour it is airborne, it needs at least 30 hours on the ground at special maintenance facilities to ensure it can fly again.
Yet Congress, almost without debate, has continued to order new F-22s, primarily because the Air Force and Lockheed spread production of the plane – and the 25,000 direct and up to 70,000 indirect jobs dependent on it — across 44 of the 50 states, including Congressional districts whose representatives, including Democrats, hold key positions on the committees that authorize and appropriate money for the Pentagon.
As a result, the F-22 vote, like many votes affecting the interests of what former President Dwight Eisenhower denounced as the "military-industrial complex", was decided more by the plane’s role in providing jobs than in defending the country against actual threats.
That point was made effectively by none other than Obama’s Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, who has long opposed the F-22.
"The fact that the F-22 program is no longer… wanted by the most senior civilian and uniformed officials in the Pentagon — exercising their best professional judgment — and that it is simply no longer affordable cannot be disputed," he said during the debate that preceded the vote.
"However, in the face of those facts, the full weight of all those interests that have — for a period of over 20 years — become invested in the survival of the program has been brought to bear on the decision-making process on this body today," he added. "That is the military-industrial-Congressional complex at work."
McCain was one of 15 Republicans who backed Obama on the vote, while 14 Democrats, including veteran doves, such as California Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and Washington State Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell voted against him. Lockheed and Boeing employ more people in California and Washington, respectively.
If the House retains its authorization for F-22 spare parts, it will have to be reconciled with the Senate version, so significant battles over the plane’s fate – including its possible resurrection through appropriations legislation — still loom. But Obama’s victory gives him the momentum.
(Inter Press Service)
