Senate panel adds $1.75 billion to Pentagon budget for 7 of Lockheed’s F-22 fighter jets

Senators add $1.75B to DOD budget for F-22’s

WASHINGTON — Senators on Thursday added $1.75 billion to a Pentagon budget proposal for seven more of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-22 fighter jets, setting the stage for a battle with the Obama administration.

The Senate Armed Services Committee added the funds in its version of the fiscal 2010 defense spending bill. The full Senate has yet to vote on the measure.

But by a vote of 389-22, the House on Thursday approved its version of the spending bill, which included $369 million to continue production of the Lockheed jets.

Earlier this week, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, filed an amendment to eliminate the funding, but that effort was defeated. The Obama administration already has threatened to veto a $680 billion military budget that contains money for the jets.

“It is regrettable that the administration needs to issue a veto threat for funding intended to meet a real national security requirement that has been consistently confirmed by our uniformed military leaders,” said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., a staunch advocate of the radar-evading jets. The senator, whose state could lose jobs if the F-22 program is terminated, requested the funding.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to end production of the F-22 after 187 aircraft have been built. But that’s dozens fewer than Lockheed and its supporters in Congress had hoped for.

Gates last week called inclusion of any funding for the fighter jet a “big problem.”

Part of Gates’ proposed $534 billion defense budget represents a shift away from Cold War-era weapon systems to futuristic programs aimed at unconventional foes.