RPT-US senator temporarily drops bid to kill F-22 funds

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WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Carl Levin on Wednesday temporarily withdrew a bid to kill $1.75 billion in funding for the F-22 fighter jet in a massive defense bill, but he vowed to bring it up again.

"This was temporarily withdrawn because we couldn't get to a vote," Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on the Senate floor. He said that his amendment "will come back."

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the annual defense bill if it includes the money to acquire seven F-22 aircraft, made by Lockheed-Martin (LMT.N). The overall measure includes $550.4 billion for military operations and $130 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for fiscal 2010 which begins Oct. 1.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to cut back many of the military's weapons programs and transition from the F-22 to three models of Lockheed's Joint Strike Fighter F-35, co-developed with eight countries and built for export. The F-35 would be built by a team from General Electric (GE.N) and Rolls-Royce Group Plc (RR.L).

He has called for halting production at 187 of the F-22 jets despite criticism from some quarters -- including within the Air Force itself -- that limiting their production could pose a high threat to military readiness in the future.

Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and others have criticized the F-22 for its performance problems and have pointed out that it has not been used in combat operations in the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But lawmakers from districts where the aircraft are produced have rebuffed Obama's veto threat in a bid to protect well-paying jobs in their districts at a time when the economy is in a deep recession and unemployment is soaring. (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky)