Pakistan Defence
Gates says no decisions yet on F-22, other weapons
By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Tue Feb 10, 2009
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon has not yet decided whether to continue production of the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-22 fighter jet, but reiterated that current economic conditions required tough choices among competing programs.
Gates said on Tuesday that there was broad agreement to begin including more spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Pentagon's base budget, but doing so would take more time than he initially hoped.
Pentagon officials last year proposed increasing the fiscal 2010 defense budget to around $584 billion in 2010 from $515 billion in fiscal 2009, partly to include more war spending.
But the White House Office of Management and Budget last week said it had told defense officials to pare the proposal back to around $527 billion, the sum projected by the Bush administration last year.
The Pentagon's top suppliers, Lockheed, Boeing Co (BA.N), Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), General Dynamics Corp (GD.N), BAE Systems (BAES.L), Raytheon Co (RTN.N), are anxiously awaiting news of any possible cuts in their programs.
Lockheed in particular has been lobbying for an extension of its F-22 program, running a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's Washington Post which argued that the program supported 95,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.
He said the F-22 program, slated to end production in 2009, was one of many programs that would be examined carefully during the budgeting process. He declined to say if the fiscal 2010 budget would call for termination of specific programs.
The cost of Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft is now just under $140 million per copy for 180 F-22 Raptors, whose development costs are in the $70 billion range.
By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Tue Feb 10, 2009
WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon has not yet decided whether to continue production of the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) F-22 fighter jet, but reiterated that current economic conditions required tough choices among competing programs.
Gates said on Tuesday that there was broad agreement to begin including more spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the Pentagon's base budget, but doing so would take more time than he initially hoped.
Pentagon officials last year proposed increasing the fiscal 2010 defense budget to around $584 billion in 2010 from $515 billion in fiscal 2009, partly to include more war spending.
But the White House Office of Management and Budget last week said it had told defense officials to pare the proposal back to around $527 billion, the sum projected by the Bush administration last year.
The Pentagon's top suppliers, Lockheed, Boeing Co (BA.N), Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N), General Dynamics Corp (GD.N), BAE Systems (BAES.L), Raytheon Co (RTN.N), are anxiously awaiting news of any possible cuts in their programs.
Lockheed in particular has been lobbying for an extension of its F-22 program, running a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's Washington Post which argued that the program supported 95,000 direct and indirect jobs across the country.
He said the F-22 program, slated to end production in 2009, was one of many programs that would be examined carefully during the budgeting process. He declined to say if the fiscal 2010 budget would call for termination of specific programs.
The cost of Lockheed Martin's fifth-generation stealth fighter aircraft is now just under $140 million per copy for 180 F-22 Raptors, whose development costs are in the $70 billion range.