As late as Friday last week, few in Washington had any idea that the Obama administration was going to end production of the F-22. The administration had defended hundreds of millions of dollars to re-sod the national mall as part of their stimulus spending, who would’ve thought they would halt production of the nation’s premiere air-to-air fighter in a sudden spasm of fiscal responsibility? The Lexington Institute’s Rebecca Grant tries to figure out how the Air Force got blindsided by the Obama administration’s termination of the program:
Many applauded President Obama’s decision to retain Bush’s Secretary of Defense to ensure wartime continuity. What few bargained for was that the first three months of the Obama presidency would give Gates a chance to craft what Senator Carl Levin has called a “novel” approach to the defense budget. Gates kept Bush-Rumsfeld holdovers in crucial program analysis posts and formed a small team to cut the budget in secret, a technique he mastered as CIA director. Next, in February 2009, Gates did what no previous Secretary of Defense had done. He directed top uniformed officers to sign non-disclosure agreements pledging not to talk about the budget process – even to other senior officers in their services. Can you picture even a famous budget cutter like Caspar Weinberger or an experienced legislator like William Cohen making a demand like that? Schwartz never had a chance to present his analysis for 243 F-22s to Congress as promised. To speak up given Gates’ new restrictions might risk the tradition of civilian control begun by George Washington. Air Combat Command, whose airmen fly and maintain F-22s and other fighters, is left to pick up the pieces after this shattering break in faith. Is this what change in Washington means?
