Washington, July 17: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as it is more versatile and better at knocking out enemy air defenses.
He noted that the Obama administration was prepared to fight against members of Congress opposed to new Pentagon budget priorities that include the elimination of F-22 Raptors.
Gates accused the proponents of the F-22 program of using “far- fetched” arguments against Obama’s plans to limit the production of what is primarily an air superiority fighter. Each example costs the US taxpayer about $350 million, when calculated in inflation-adjusted dollars and counting 20 years of development, reported Bloomberg.
“Supporters lately have promoted for its use an ever-expanding list of potential missions,” ranging from protecting the continental U.S. from sea-launched cruise missiles to going after teenage Somali pirates armed with AK-47 assault rifles, Gates told the Economic Club of Chicago on July 16.
However, he emphasized that, “we stand by this budget reform and we are prepared to fight for it.”
The F-22 program is worth $65 billion to military contractors, mainly to its [rime contractor Lockheed Martin, and the Obama administration has sought to curtail it by capping the production of fighter the at 187 examples, meaning that only four more would be built, but the Senate Armed Services Committee has drafted legislation funding seven more F-22s.
“It is time to draw the line on doing defense business as usual. The president has drawn that line. And that red line with regard to a veto is real,” said Gates.
The US Air Force had proposed procuring nearly 400 F-22s, which were designed to fight other sophisticated enemy fighter jets, but Gates vetoed further expansion as wasteful and unnecessary.
The administration’s proposed $663.8-billion military budget for the 2010 fiscal year scales back some major weapons programs while bolstering funding for unmanned aircraft, AFP reported.
The budget represented a modest increase over military spending under former president George W. Bush, despite critics’ claims that the administration has slashed military spending, Gates concluded.
—–Agencies