UPDATE 1-Lockheed, Boeing warplanes get boost in US Congress

(Adds proposed cuts to Boeing/SAIC, Textron programs)

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, May 7 (Reuters) - Big-ticket warplane programs run by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) received a boost Wednesday as the 2009 military budget wended its way through the U.S. Congress.

A House of Representatives Armed Services subcommittee recommended $3.9 billion to buy 15 Boeing C-17 cargo planes, although the Bush administration sought none and the Senate Armed Services Committee did not fund any.

Likewise, the House's Air and Land Forces subcommittee recommended an additional $523 million as a down payment on 20 more Lockheed F-22 fighters in fiscal 2010.

The Bush administration had deferred decisions on both the C-17 and F-22 production lines, leaving the next president, to be elected Nov. 4 and take office in January, to decide their fate.

The military policy bill is to be debated by the full Armed Services Committee next Wednesday before it goes to a House vote. Then it must be reconciled with a companion measure in the Senate before it can be signed into law by the president.

Rep. Neil Abercrombie, the Hawaii Democrat who chairs the Air-Land subcommittee, said the recommendations were aimed at boosting congressional oversight of costly weapons programs.

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