CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – DEFENSE
Oct. 15, 2012 – 4:29 p.m.
Romney Campaign Seeks to Clarify Position on F-22 Production, Defense Spending
By Frank Oliveri, CQ Staff
The presidential campaign of Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be walking back statements the candidate made last month that he would seek to restart a cancelled stealth fighter production line if elected.
The campaign also attempted to clarify comments by GOP vice presidential nominee Rep.
Both subjects could come up Tuesday when Romney meets President Obama for the second presidential debate.
Roger Zakheim, a senior military advisor to the Romney campaign, who until recently was the deputy staff director for the House Armed Services Committee, said last week that he believed Romney misspoke when he called for the restart of the F-22 fighter production line, built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Last month, Romney told a Virginia television station, “I would add more F-22s.”
Zakheim said he believed Romney intended to show his support for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, of which the military intends to buy 2,443 production models for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.
“I think the governor was talking about F-35s,” Zakheim said.
When the question was put directly to the Romney campaign in Boston, a Romney aide said via e-mail, “Gov. Romney is committed to maintaining American airpower that is second to none. Our airmen are flying the smallest and oldest fleet in Air Force history. He will keep any and all options on the table to ensure our airmen are flying planes worthy of the incredible mission they perform on our behalf.”
The comments appear to be an effort to walk back Romney’s original assertions. This may reflect the confusion and ambivalence his comments about F-22 caused on Capitol Hill.
When news of Romney’s comments about the F-22 first became public in September, it surprised Congress’ top GOP advocate for the F-22 fighter, who said he was not consulted.
Sen.
Notably, Chambliss — in whose state the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built fighter was assembled — did not offer full-throated support for the Romney proposal.
While Chambliss agrees the Air Force could use more F-22s in light of cost overruns, technical problems and delays that have plagued the development of the military’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, he expressed reservation about such a move given the fiscal constraints facing the nation. Other lawmakers also questioned the proposal, although some said they would consider it.
Romney Campaign Seeks to Clarify Position on F-22 Production, Defense Spending
Chambliss said he believed several lawmakers, knowing what they know today, likely would have voted to sustain the fighter program.
In 2005, under the George W. Bush administration, the Pentagon notified Congress that the military planned to buy a total of 187 F-22 stealthy air superiority fighters, well below the more than 700 originally envisioned and a change that meant shutting down the program early. In 2009, Congress approved the shutdown.
The F-22 has run into trouble recently. After a long and costly development period, it has had problems with its oxygen system, which has caused pilots to pass out in flight. Some F-22 pilots — considered among the most elite pilots in the Air Force — expressed reservations about flying the aircraft. The Air Force grounded all F-22s for a period earlier this year as it attempted to understand what was causing the poor flow of oxygen to pilots.
The F-22 program was terminated in fiscal 2010 (PL 111-84), although Congress required the preservation and storage of unique tooling for it. Lockheed Martin delivered the last F-22 production aircraft to the Air Force this May.
As late as 2009, the Air Force argued that 243 to 250 F-22s would be needed to meet operational demands at a moderate level of operational risk, and that a force of 187 F-22s would create more operational risk. But ultimately, Congress settled on 187 aircraft.
The Air Force plans to spend about $11 billion updating the relatively new stealth fighter, which to date has sat out the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The aircraft cost $363 million per copy.
Defense Spending
In last week’s vice presidential debate, Ryan appeared to struggle to explain the Romney campaign’s defense spending plans.
When asked about Romney’s plans to increase the defense budget, which Biden asserted would cost about $2 trillion over 10 years, Ryan insisted the intent was only to reverse cuts mandated by the bipartisan debt limit law (PL 112-25).
“You don’t cut defense by a trillion dollars,” Ryan said. “That’s what we’re talking about.”
The $1 trillion total Ryan referred to is the $487 billion reduction to projected defense spending growth over the next 10 years as mandated by law, plus another roughly $500 billion in reductions that would occur as a result of mandatory across-the-board cuts.
Congress still has time to avert sequester in the coming lame-duck session, which begins after the Nov. 6 elections are decided.
Dov Zakheim, another senior military advisor to the Romney campaign and father of Roger Zakheim, insisted that the Romney campaign wants to bring base defense spending to 4 percent of GDP, which has been a Republican goal for many years. He said this is not a historically high level, pointing out that currently the United States is spending 4.3 percent of GDP to fund the Pentagon and the war effort.
Romney Campaign Seeks to Clarify Position on F-22 Production, Defense Spending
An aide in the Romney campaign reiterated Dov Zakheim’s comments in an email, writing,“Gov. Romney will begin rebuilding the military by reversing the Obama-era defense cuts and he has established the goal of increasing base defense spending to 4 percent of GDP.”