Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By - Dec 16, 2010 BloombergThe move would strip out the JSF money, eliminating seven aircraft, from a U.S. Defense Department request for $7.86 billion and 42 planes, according to the spending measure, which didn’t give a rationale for the new totals.
Savings from the JSF program, the Pentagon’s biggest arms project, would be the most among $8.4 billion in weapons- spending reductions in the 1,924-page Senate bill released Dec. 14. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is the largest U.S. defense contractor by sales.
The measure’s $667.7 billion defense section also provides $450 million to keep developingGeneral Electric Co.’s F-35 backup engine. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said the engine from primary supplier United Technologies Corp. is sufficient, and has vowed to advise President Barack Obama to veto any bill that funds the GE model.
Senators are proposing to drop five of the Air Force F-35s from the Pentagon’s request and two of the short-takeoff and vertical-landing models being built for the Marine Corps. The military expects the first F-35s to be ready for combat in 2016.
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2010/12/dtn-news-defense-news-lockheed-f-35.html
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