By Emelie Rutherford
The House’s lead defense appropriator said he met with Japanese and Air Force officials this week to help the foreign nation figure out if it would buy Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] F-22 fighter jet if a legal ban on its export is lifted.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) told reporters yesterday he is still considering whether to allow in the final fiscal year 2010 defense appropriations bill a provision in the Senate-passed version that would pave the way for potential future F-22 exports. The possibility of the lifting of the foreign-sales ban is being closely watched because Congress has agreed with the Pentagon to build no more than 187 F-22 for the United States.
The Senate on Tuesday passed a defense appropriations bill that calls for studying how to prepare a simplified version of the fifth-generation F-22 stealth fighter for a foreign nation to buy. Murtha said he supports a provision calling for researching whether F-22 exports are in the United States’ national interest, yet referred to the Senate plan as “a little more stringent.”
“We’ll work that out,” Murtha said yesterday at the Capitol.
“I met with the Japanese ambassador yesterday and with the Air Force on this topic to let them talk about how expensive it would be to make the changes that are necessary to eliminate the advantages (the U.S. military has) in the airplane. Pretty expensive, very expensive. I don’t have any idea what the Japanese will decide.”
The nation is also looking at Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and Boeing‘s [BA] F-18, though it did not have accurate cost estimates for all of them, Murtha said.
“I insisted that we give them accurate figures,” Murtha said.
His comments come as the House and Senate defense appropriations subcommittees hash out the final differences between each chamber’s FY ’10 defense appropriations bill. The heads of the full committees and defense panels are expected to meet as soon as next week to sign off on the final conference committee agreement, which could be followed by final-passage votes in each chamber as soon as the following week.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a proponent of foreign F-22 sales, has told Defense Daily he expects the Senate language to remain in the final compromise bill (Defense Daily, Sept. 28).
The House-passed appropriations bill contains two items that could potentially lead to a presidential veto: funding to continue the General Electric [GE]-Rolls-Royce second, alternate engine for the F-35, and monies to missionize some of the VH-71 presidential helicopters from the canceled Lockheed Martin program.
Murtha stood by both programs yesterday, and questioned concerns about the White House’s vetoing the bill over them.
Murtha claimed no decision has been made yet in House-Senate negotiations on the chopper effort. He argued using some helicopters from the canceled VH-71 effort would make the best use of already spent funds before a new helicopter program is ready.
“If you start over again, and if you think (President Obama) needs a new helicopter, then I’ve said it’s going to cost we think $17 billion…(and) it’ll be five years before we get a new helicopter,” Murtha said, acknowledging the Navy, which manages the program, estimates a lower cost. “So what we’re saying is…use the stuff that you’ve got and get something out of it. If they don’t change the requirements it’s going to be the same problem.”
For the F-35 second engine, Murtha said “the Senate is sending signals that they’re for it” and added: “I would say that’s possible we’ll work that out.”
He argued the two-engine setup for the F-35, which Congress funded over Bush White House objections as well, has “already made progress.” He noted primary engine builder Pratt & Whitney [UTX] and second-engine maker GE-Rolls-Royce have offered to enter into cost-controlling agreements with the Pentagon, and also cited billions of dollars already spent on the alternate engine.
The final version of the policy-setting Pentagon authorization bill, agreed to by a conference committee on Wednesday, authorizes continued funding of the alternate engine. For VH-71, the House-Senate authorization negotiators agreed to the Pentagon’s $85 million request for cancellation and program-management costs, yet also encouraged continue procurement of the Increment 1 choppers to salvage investments already made.
The House passed that final authorization bill yesterday. After clearing the Senate, it will be sent to the White House for Obama’s signature or veto.
Meanwhile, as debate rages in Washington over whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, Murtha reiterated his stance that another supplemental funding bill for the Afghanistan war will be needed before FY ’10 ends. That’s despite the Obama administration’s attempts to stop funding wars through mid-year supplementals.
“There’s going to be a supplemental whether there’s more troops or not because they’re going to run out of money in the spring,” Murtha said.
He said President Obama told him every 1,000 troops would cost $1 billion. Murtha said the Pentagon agrees with that rough calculation, about which he said his staff had doubts. The congressman noted the cost would vary depending on equipment sent with troops.