Pentagon to miss deadline for disclosing plan for fighter jets

The Defense Department announced Wednesday that it will miss the Sunday deadline Congress set for disclosing whether it will buy more F-22 fighter jets, saying it will take several weeks to decide the fate of the program.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday that the decision on the F-22 will be announced along with the details of the Defense Department's fiscal 2010 budget, expected in April.

"We will not signal in our communication to Congress that is due on March 1 ... where we are going with the program," Morrell said. "You will know when the fiscal 2010 budget is rolled out where the F-22 program is going, but not until that point."

Congress approved $2.9 billion to buy the last 20 F-22s this fiscal year and added $523 million in advanced procurement money should incoming administration officials opt to buy 20 more of the fighters in fiscal 2010.

But the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill limits the obligation of the advanced procurement money to $140 million until administration officials determine whether to continue the program or shut down the production line.

The law requires the president to notify Capitol Hill of his decision by March 1.

Morrell did signal that the Pentagon was committed to funding at least four more F-22s, which would replace other aircraft lost in combat. The F-22, the newest and most sophisticated fighter in the Air Force's inventory, has not deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

"So those replacement aircraft would put us above the 183 to 187. But those are replacement aircraft," Morrell said. "That doesn't speak to where we are going with this program."

So far, the Defense Department has agreed to obligate only $50 million of the advanced procurement funding as a down payment for the four additional F-22s. Several lawmakers, including House Armed Services Air and Land Subcommittee Chairman Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, have called the $50 million inadequate.

Morrell said there "will be a communication made to the Congress about the status of that $140 million," but emphasized that any decision to put the additional $90 million toward the F-22s should not be read as a commitment to buying more of the fighters. Materials bought with the money could be used for other aircraft, he explained.

A spokesman for Lockheed Martin Corp., which builds the fighters, said in a statement Wednesday that, if a decision is not made by Sunday, the firm needs the additional $90 million to keep production lines humming.

Last week, Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz said he planned to ask Defense Secretary Robert Gates for more F-22s, but the request would fall short of the service's long-standing goal of acquiring a fleet of 381 fighters.

While Schwartz would not disclose the number of additional F-22s he plans to recommend, he did not take issue with comments made in December by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen that the Air Force plans to buy about 60 more of the fighters.

A defense source tracking the program said Wednesday that the Pentagon could not make a decision on the F-22 without resolving larger defense budget issues raised by Gates and others, especially the affordability of current weapons procurement and development programs.

"I think they'll go to the [congressional defense] committees and say, 'Hey, give us a break here,'" the defense source said.

During his speech before a joint session of Congress Tuesday, President Obama signaled that one way he will drive down the federal deficit is to "reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use."

Obama did not detail which programs could get the ax, but some lawmakers, including House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., have argued that continuing F-22 production is simply too pricey and not strategically necessary.

But the program, which employs 25,000 people in 44 states, has a legion of supporters on Capitol Hill who have argued that, despite the cost, more F-22s are needed to deter and defeat threats.