Word: 22s
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...people building the F-22s need the jobs they generate. In the past week, three labor groups whose members help assemble the planes - the AFL-CIO, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the United Steelworkers - have urged lawmakers to keep them in production. With F-22 plants and suppliers spread across 44 states, there's a lot of support on Capitol Hill for keeping it in production. Senator Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia Republican who has thousands of constituents working on the planes at the Lockheed-Martin plant in Marietta, wants to keep those voters employed. He solicited...
...Senate is expected to vote soon on an amendment offered by Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and John McCain of Arizona, its ranking Republican, to eliminate $1.75 billion that the committee added, over their objections, for seven more F-22s (the price includes only the hardware, not the R&D, to design the planes). Those calling for an end to the plane's production note that the F-22 was designed to fight Soviet warplanes - aircraft never built by a country that no longer exists. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...
...22s have flown over Afghanistan or Iraq. That's because they were designed for long-range air-to-air duels with similarly advanced militaries. Fighters that might emerge in the future, probably flown by the Chinese, are the only prospective challengers the F-22's backers are able to cite, and President Obama believes that 187 of them are sufficient. He has pledged to use his first veto if next year's defense authorization bill contains funding for extra F-22s, knowing that losing this dogfight would doom Gates' effort to retool the Pentagon. "We do not need these planes...
...Enlist Allies: Last year's Air Force leaders wanted more F-22s. Gates canned both of them, blaming them for the Air Force's sloppy handling of nuclear weapons, although their vocal support of the F-22 program angered Gates' inner circle. The new Air Force secretary and chief of staff agree with Gates that 187 F-22s are sufficient and took the unusual step of penning an Op-Ed in the Washington Post to say so. Meanwhile, Michael Wynne, the ousted secretary, was left to grumble in the blogosphere that Gates' blueprint is a "searing indictment of America...
...military currently has 183 of the $350 million-a-piece F-22s on order, and four more will be added to the 2009 emergency war-funding budget. But the advanced fighter has not been used in either Iraq or Afghanistan, and Gates believes that, given the more pressing spending priorities, the military has as many F-22s as it needs. Instead, Gates will commit to increasing the supply of the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as well as weapons systems designed to enhance U.S. capability in current conflicts, from unmanned drones and defenses against medium-range missiles...