Pentagon eyes F-35 fighters, not pricier F-22s

By Jim Wolf

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Defense Department is likely to speed production of Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter rather than buy more of the company's pricier F-22 fighters, the Pentagon's No. 2 official told Congress Tuesday.

"I do not believe the F-22s will be replacements for the F-15," Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the Pentagon's fiscal 2009 budget request. The Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) F-15 is an older-model fighter that has been subject to groundings in recent months after one broke up in flight.

"So I would expect instead we would try to accelerate the Joint Strike Fighter, which is more the class of the F-15," he said. "So the Air Force would move into Joint Strike Fighter and not into the much more expensive F-22 airplane."

The F-35 is a family of warplanes for the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, as well as for export. Current Pentagon plans call for production of 2,458 aircraft in three versions over a 28-year delivery period.

The Defense Department left the F-22's fate uncertain in the $515.4 billion military spending blueprint sent to Congress a week ago. The budget lacks funding to shut down the F-22 line as well as any seed money for future purchases.

But the head of a House of Representatives panel that funds the U.S. military said Tuesday he opposed shutting down the F-22 line.

"We don't want to see the F-22 line shut down," Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on defense, said in an interview after speaking at a defense technology conference sponsored by Aviation Week magazine.

Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democract, said he also opposed shutting down the Boeing C-17 cargo aircraft production line, another decision left in the lurch by President George Bush's fiscal 2009 budget plan, which Congress may now rework.