WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee added $1.75 billion Thursday to a Pentagon budget proposal for seven more Lockheed Martin F-22 fighter jets, heightening a promised showdown with the Obama administration, which opposes the additional planes.The committee voted as the House, by a vote of 389-22, approved its own version of the fiscal 2010 Defense Department spending bill, which included $369 million as a down payment for 12 additional F-22 Raptors, plus $603 million for a backup engine for Lockheed’s F-35 joint strike fighter.
Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate panel, said he was confident that he and other opponents of the additional aircraft "have a fair chance of winning" when the full Senate votes on the defense bill. No date for that vote has been set.
His committee voted 13-11 in closed session to approve money for the additional aircraft, Levin said. The panel also voted 12-10 to add $438.9 million for a backup engine for the F-35, Levin said.
The Obama administration has already threatened to veto a $680 billion military budget that contains money for the jets. The White House Office of Management and Budget told Congress in a letter Wednesday night that it objects to both spending items in the House measure.
The Defense Department says it has enough F-22s and argues that the F-35Â’s "current engine is performing well." Spending on a second engine is "unnecessary" and would "impede the progress" of the joint strike fighter program, the letter said.