By Emelie Rutherford
Concerns about the cost of developing a simplified version of the F-22 fighter jet for allied nations is thwarting some top lawmakers from trying to lift a ban on selling the Lockheed Martin [LMT] aircraft abroad.
Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) told Defense Daily that while he supports allowing countries such as Japan to buy the F-22 he does not plan to call for lifting the export ban in the fiscal year 2010 defense appropriations bill. The SAC’s defense subcommittee, which he also chairs, will unveil its proposal after the August congressional recess.
“It’s not in (the bill) right now, but we’re talking about it,” Inouye said last Thursday, adding the matter also could be addressed during House-Senate conference committee negotiations after the Senate passes its version.
Inouye said more research-and-development work has to be done on developing an export version. He acknowledged the cost of creating a simplified F-22 for another country “may be pretty high,” but said at this point “we have no idea.”
He said uncertainty about that cost, and about the straight sticker price of an exportable F-22, make it hard to arrange for an allied nation to plan for the purchase.
“We have no idea what the cost will be like, so we have to do additional research and development and…we have to make certain that they’re willing to pay for it,” Inouye told reporters. “And, at this stage, we have no idea what it’s going to be, and I doubt if any country will say we’ll pay for all the research and development.”
Inouye has talked to Japanese officials about a possible F-22 buy, but said he has not talked to them since the Senate voted July 21 to remove from its defense authorization bill funds for buying F-22s beyond the 187 the Pentagon wants to purchase.
SAC Ranking Member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) told Defense Daily he touted the F-22 export idea to Pentagon officials, and suggested they help Lockheed Martin design an export version that would not put U.S. capabilities at risk.
“I know they’re considering it, but I was not encouraged by their reaction,” Cochran, also the ranking member of the defense subcommittee, said last Thursday.
House Appropriations Defense subcommittee Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) told reporters last month he did not seek to lift the F-22 export ban in the defense appropriations bill the House passed July 30 because of the cost of creating an exportable version. He came to that conclusion after meeting with the Japanese ambassador and Air Force officials, he said.
“It’d be very, very difficult to come up with…what Japanese would have to do in order to buy the F-22,” Murtha said July 16. “It would be much more expensive than originally was thought,…(perhaps) $300 million. It would be much more than that. It would be well over $1 billion it would cost to take out those things that we would not find acceptable for a foreign country to have.”
Thus, he said, the House-passed appropriations bill includes the longstanding prohibition on F-22 exports, which initially was crafted by House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.), a Murtha ally.
Outspoken F-22 backers including Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) told Defense Daily they see a lifting of the export ban as perhaps the only way to extend the F-22 production line after the 187th aircraft is built for the Pentagon in 2011. Such congressional supporters of extending the Pentagon’s buy beyond 187 F-22s appear to be losing their battle to secure added funding for them in the FY ’10 budget.
The versions of the FY ’10 defense authorization bill that passed the Senate July 23 and House June 25 both call for studying the feasibility of foreign-military sales of the F-22. A conference committee is reconciling the two chambers’ proposals, with the goal of sending one final version to the White House next month.
The Senate-passed authorization bill calls for two reports on developing an exportable F-22 to be delivered to lawmakers. One report, due within 180 days of the act’s passage, would be from the secretaries of defense, state, and the Air Force and include estimates on cost and schedule as well as strategic and economic impacts of F-22 exports to other nations. The second report would cover the same ground and be prepared by a federally funded research and development center.
The House-passed authorization legislation–the only of the three chamber-approved defense bills with funds for extending F-22 production beyond 187 copies–calls for a report on a potential F-22 sale to Japan. The bill calls for the secretaries of defense, state, and the Air Force to report to lawmakers within 30 days of the act’s enactment. The report would include the same type of information required under the Senate bill.
Both critics and supporters in Congress of an extended U.S. buy of F-22 fighter jets said they are open to lifting the export ban.
“As long as it complies with the technology-transfer issue that’s always an issue when you’re talking about selling weapon systems to foreign countries…I think it’d be a great thing,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters last Tuesday.
McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, helped lead the effort last month to strip added F-22 funds from the Senate’s defense authorization bill.
Some proponents of extending F-22 production for the Pentagon say they fear an export arrangement, if lined up, would not start until portions of the production line are shut down, thus driving up costs for any foreign buyers because of the need to reconstitute the line.