McCaskill pushes for more F/A-18s
The Senate’s version of a national defense bill would authorize nine more F/A-18 fighter jets than contained in the Department of Defense budget for 2010, said U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.
McCaskill’s office said Friday that she spent the better part of the last week seeking amendments to the Senate version of the the defense authorization bill. One amendment added language justifying a multi-year purchase of the fighter jets, which are assembled in St. Louis.
Authorizing nine additional F/A-18 Super Hornets next year would bring the Navy’s total purchase to 40 - or the same number Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems had expected.
“The F/A-18 isn’t just about jobs in St. Louis,” McCaskill said in a news release. “If we don’t buy more to prevent a projected major shortfall in aircraft carrier strike aircraft, we’re going to have to have aircraft carriers with no planes. That is simply unacceptable.”
Boeing is hoping the military places another multi-year purchase of the F/A-18s, which supports 5,000 jobs in the St. Louis area. During a briefing with reporters last month, Boeing said past multi-year procurements have saved the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars.
Boeing officials added that the Navy is facing a tactical aviation shortfall and the Super Horney “industrial base is a national asset.”
Uh….”Super Horney”?????
The facts are that Rolls Royce sold the Soviet Union jet engine proto types that were used in MIGS that downed in part over 4,000 U.S. aircraft over Korea, and Vietnam. This being said in the mid 70′S the United States developed a jet fighter it claims is 100-0 in aerial combat. Now it seems that the United States could make the same mistake trusting foreign firms with Aircraft technology one of them being the same Rolls Royce firm. This may be the reason that the F-22 is being cancelled while the F-18 is being advanced. We do not need foreign technology to start with we need the best which is available domestically. The costs in terms of soldiers killed by foreign aircraft are too high. We can advance our technology through education and application of the sciences domestically. In order to nip this evil in the bud we should insist that Beoing cancell its arrangement with Rolls Royce which was Lockheed Martins crime.