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Senate votes to kill F-22

In the end, F-22 supporters argued mostly for preserving jobs and industrial capability. Opponents argued against wasting money on unneeded weapons.

It was 90,000 aerospace workers versus the U.S. president, the secretary of defense, the chief of staff of the Air Force and Sens. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and John McCain, the committee’s senior Republican.

The high-tech, high-maintenance, high-cost stealth fighter lost.

In a lopsided 58-40 vote on Tuesday, the Senate decided to end production of the F-22.

It was a debate in which McCain, R-Ariz., sided with President Barack Obama, his former presidential rival to oppose the F-22.

And liberal Democrats from Washington state and California lined up with conservative Republicans from Georgia and Texas to try to save the plane.

McCain argued that a vote for continuing to buy F-22s was a vote for “continuing business as usual – that once a weapon gets into full production, it never dies.”

More important than not spending $1.75 billion more on F-22s, McCain said, is the signal the Senate would send that it is not going to continue buying weapons that are over cost, behind schedule and “out off control.” A vote against the F-22 was a vote for real acquisition reform, he said.

The final tally far from the too-close-to-call vote Levin had predicted.

But the battle is not over. It will be fought again when a House-Senate conference committee meets next fall to work out differences between the two chambers’ versions of the 2010 Defense Authorization Act.

It is also likely to be fought as the 2010 Defense Appropriations bills work their way through each house.

The House has already voted to spend $369 million buying parts and materials to build another dozen F-22s. And the House Appropriations Committee has concurred.

The battle began in earnest in June, when F-22 supporters on the Senate Armed Services Committee overrode objections from Levin and McCain and included $1.75 billion in the 2010 defense budget to buy seven more F-22s.

The stealth fighter’s supporters argued that the planes would be needed to prevail against China or Russia if they arise as foes sometime in the distant future. But mainly, they argued, more F-22s were needed to protect jobs.

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., warned that up to “95,000 direct and indirect jobs are at stake” among the companies that build parts for the F-22 in 40 states.

The U.S. government recently spent $65 billion to bail out the auto industry, but now is balking at spending $1.75 billion to preserve aerospace firms, he complained.

“This industry is not in trouble like the auto industry. In this case, we lead the world,” but that leadership may be put in jeopardy by ending production of the F-22, he said.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., made a similar case.

Maintaining U.S. military superiority depends on maintaining a partnership between the Pentagon and the defense industry, she said.

“This amendment cancels a vital military program without adequate thought given to the men and women we depend on to design and build the equipment we depend on” for military superiority, Murray said.

“This is about our nation’s economic stability, our future defense capability and the ability to maintain jobs across the country,” she said.

For senators with few jobs in jeopardy, McCain’s argument about waste seemed compelling.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., argued that “buying more F-22s at this point would meet the very definition of government waste. We have the Pentagon, which hasn’t exactly been shy about calling for more weapons, saying this is unnecessary.”

Wyden said when he meets with troops, they ask about better body armor, newer vehicles and better medical care, never F-22s.

Sen. Michael Bennett, D-Colo., offered a similar assessment: “If the Department of Defense isn’t asking for it, and it’s not helping our mission, then why are we forcing taxpayers to pay for more F-22 fighter jets? “At a cost of $351 million per aircraft, the F-22 is the most expensive fighter jet in history, yet it has not supported a single mission in Iraq or Afghanistan,” Bennett said.

“We have enough F-22s. We have too much government waste,” he said. “I agree with President Obama and Sen. McCain that this is $1.7 billion that could be put to better use.”

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised the vote.

“He understands that for many members this was a very difficult vote, but he believes that the Pentagon cannot continue with business as usual when it comes to the F-22 or any other program in excess of our needs,” said Gates’ spokesman Geoff Morrell.

But moments after the vote, Dodd vowed to keep fighting.

“I believe it is our duty and responsibility to protect the thousands of workers in Connecticut and across the country from losing their jobs and to ensure that our country maintains the ability to continue building the finest and most sophisticated fighter jets in the world,” Dodd said. “We may not have prevailed in this round, but … I will not give up this fight.”