FY 2010 Defense Budget: Or how we lost the next war

[Armed_Scientist]

- F-22 production to end at 187 air frames (without congressional intervention)

- ABL aircraft 2 canceled, test program and development of the existing aircraft will continue

- the Multiple Kill Vehicle program has been canceled (along with it the hope of effective missile defense)

- F-35 program has been accelerated with production returned to it's pre-2006 schedule.

- Next Generation Bomber (2018 bomber, or interim-bomber) has been 'deferred', which I take to mean canceled

- DDG-1000 funded for two hulls

- Ohio class replacement program started

- All FCS ground vehicles have been canceled, will be restarting the program from scratch

- CGX delayed along with all other surface combatants other then the LCS

- No word on accelerating Virginia class production to two boats a year

- C-17 to stop at 205 aircraft (I would expect to see additional airframes added in a war time supplemental or by congress)

-TSAT terminated

This defense budget request, unless significantly modified by congress is the first step towards the US loosing it's ability to project power world wide.

Good articles on the subject over at www.flightglobal.com and Aviation Week's AviationWeek.com.

 

[Bigum1969]

Peace through superior firepower. That is my philosophy.

That is not, however, our current president's philosophy. He likes to give his "yes you can" speeches to Europe, while our enemies relish the direction he is taking the country.