Sen. Subcommittee Votes To Cut JSF, LCS Purchases
A key Senate subcommittee voted Sept. 14 to cut top priority purchases by the Air Force and Navy in 2011 to help trim $8 billion from the 2011 defense spending bill.
The Senate defense appropriations subcommittee approved cutting Joint Strike Fighter production from 42 planes to 32, and to build just one Littoral Combat Ship, not two, in 2011.
Overall, the subcommittee chopped $8.1 billion from the budget President Barack Obama requested for the U.S. Defense Department for 2011. The cuts come mainly in procurement and operations and maintenance accounts.
Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, subcommittee chairman, said the JSF cuts are warranted because the program is behind schedule. "I would inform my colleagues that the Defense Department has not yet awarded a contract to build 30 aircraft which the Congress funded nearly a year ago."
Similarly, with the Navy's LCS, Inouye said that "two ships funded in 2010 have not yet been contracted. Under the new plan, the Navy would seek to award four ships to a single contractor in the coming year. There is virtually no way that the winning contractor would be able to begin construction of four ships in 2011."
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4778679&c=AME&s=AIR