Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday unveiled a 2010 budget plan that would cancel several big-ticket, politically charged weapons programs, including a new presidential helicopter, while adding funding for unmanned aerial vehicles and other programs. Gates recommended scaling back weapons designed for conventional wars in exchange for boosting intelligence, surveillance, communications and reconnaissance programs that are designed to thwart insurgents in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. “As I told the Congress in January, this budget represents an opportunity, one of those rare chances to match virtue to necessity, to critically and ruthlessly separate appetites from real requirements,” Gates said at a press conference. Among the Pentagon's big name programs, Gates' proposal would: cut missile defense spending by $1.4 billion in 2010; end production of Lockheed Martin's F-22 fighter at 187 aircraft; scrap a $15 billion competition for new rescue helicopters, and buy 31 more of Boeing Co's F/A-18 fighter jets in 2010. It would revamp the way the Navy builds destroyers, scrap a new cruiser program, and terminate a $13 billion presidential helicopter program run by Lockheed and AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Finmeccanica. At the same time, it would dramatically increase funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being built by Lockheed. The budget, if approved by the White House and Congress, would pump billions of fresh dollars into programs such as unmanned aerial systems that would give U.S. troops new capabilities, especially in the shorter, less conventional wars expected to dominate the future. “This department must consistently demonstrate the commitment and leadership to stop programs that significantly exceed their budget,” Gates said. “There's broad agreement on the need for acquisition and contracting reform in the Department of Defense. There have been enough studies, enough handwringing, enough rhetoric,” he added. “Now is the time for action.” Gates put the final touches on his proposals this weekend even as North Korea's missile launch sparked renewed debate over futuristic programs including Boeing's planned Airborne Laser, a modified 747 jumbo jet designed to zap missiles soon after they are launched. The $10-billion-a-year missile shield is the Pentagon's costliest arms development project, but Gates said he planned to cut the program's budget by $1.4 billion in 2010. He proposed ending the airborne laser after just one airplane, adding $700 million to regional missile defense programs, and said the Pentagon would not buy more ground-based interceptors for a site in Alaska. Lockheed, Boeing and Northrop Grumman Corp – respectively the Pentagon's three biggest suppliers by sales – each have big stakes in elements of the layered antimissile shield.
