Gates vows real fight over U.S. defense budget

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned on Thursday that Congress faces a veto threat over defense spending if lawmakers try to force more F-22 fighters onto President Barack Obama's reform effort.

During a visit to Obama's hometown of Chicago, Gates vowed to put up a fight against members of Congress opposed to new Pentagon budget priorities that seek to scale back or eliminate big-ticket programs including the F-22.

"It is time to draw the line on doing defense business as usual. The president has drawn that line. And that red line with regard to a veto is real," Gates told the Economic Club of Chicago in a sharply worded speech intended to rebut criticism from Congress.

"We stand by this budget reform and we are prepared to fight for it."

Gates suggested that funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, seen as the future of U.S. air power, could be in jeopardy if funds are drained away by members of Congress intent on protecting lower priority programs.

"If we can't get this right, what on earth can we get right?" Gates said in a text of his remarks released ahead of the speech.

Lockheed Martin is the primary contractor for both the F-35 and the F-22.

PENTAGON PRIORITIES

Gates is pushing a $534 billion Obama defense budget request for fiscal year 2010 that would rebalance Pentagon spending to give greater weight to programs and equipment needed for counterinsurgency and irregular warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the reform effort has come under fire from powerful lawmakers in Congress who view accompanying cuts in larger programs as a danger to national security and the economy, often including jobs within their own constituencies.

An Obama effort to halt production of the advanced F-22 fighter at 187 planes has emerged as a main front in the battle with lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives.

Obama has threatened to veto the annual defense bill if it includes the money to buy extra F-22s.

Gates rejected criticism that halting F-22 production poses a threat to U.S. security, saying the United States will have about 1,700 latest-generation fighters by 2025 while China will have only "a handful of comparable aircraft."

"The F-22 is clearly a capability we do need -- a niche, silver-bullet solution to one or two potential scenarios -- specifically the defeat of a highly advanced enemy fighter fleet," he said. "The F-22, to be blunt, does not make much sense anyplace else in the spectrum of conflict."

By contrast, Gates said the F-35, being co-developed with eight countries, offers a newer design with a larger suite of weapons and superior capabilities at less than half the cost of the F-22.

"If properly supported, the F-35 will be the backbone of America's tactical aviation fleet for decades to come if, and it is a big if, money is not drained away to spend on other aircraft that our military leadership considers of lower priority or excess to our needs," he said.

He said the costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with the global economic crisis, have turned this year's budget fight into "a zero sum game" that could jeopardize vital security and national interests.

"That is a risk that I will not take and one that I cannot accept," Gates told his audience.

"We simply cannot risk continuing down the same path -- where our spending and program priorities are increasingly divorced from the very real threats of today and the growing ones of tomorrow."

(Editing by John O'Callaghan)