Washington, July 22: The American Senate has voted to terminate further production of US Air Force”s top-line but expensive F-22 ”Raptor” stealth fighter jets, giving in to President Barack Obama”s threat to veto the entire defence bill if lawmakers granted USD 1.75 billion for the controversial project. The 58-40 vote, which stripped USD 1.75 billion for an additional seven F-22s for the USAF from the fiscal 2010 budget of USD 680 billion, reversed an earlier Senate committee decision to fund the defence programme.
The crucial vote gave the White House and Pentagon a key policy victory over Congressional supporters of the F-22, many of whom represent states where jobs are tied to the production of the jets. Obama had threatened to veto the entire defence budget if it included funds for the F-22.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates had also argued that the additional jets are not needed or wanted by the military. “At a time when we”re fighting two wars (in Iraq and Afghanistan) and facing a serious deficit, (expanding the F-22) would have been an inexcusable waste of money,” Obama said after the vote.
“Every dollar of waste in our defence budget is a dollar we can”t spend to support our troops or prepare for future threats or protect the American people,” he said. Gates had depicted F-22, conceived in 1980s for combat against future Soviet fighters, as a “silver-bullet solution” to a hi-tech threat that has not materialised.
—-PTI—