 (photo: AP / J. Scott Applewhite) |
In a hard-fought debate that ended with a 58 to 40 vote, the US President won support for his argument that continued production of the twin-engine stealth plane would be wasteful.
Mr Obama relied on support from John McCain, his Republican opponent in last November's presidential election, who moved an amendment in the Senate to strike from the 2010 defence budget the $US1.75 billion ($2.14bn) allocated for seven more F-22s.
The decision means the US Air Force will receive no more of the jets, known as the Raptor, after the current order for 187 is filled.
Yesterday's Senate vote is politically significant. The administration had lobbied hard to block further production, and Mr Obama had threatened what would have been his first veto.
Most resistance came from both Democrat and Republican senators anxious about the impact of cutting the jobs of 25,000 people directly employed in producing the Raptor, and an additional 70,000 indirectly involved.
On Monday, Mr Obama wrote to Senator McCain to seek his support, saying: "We do not need these planes. To continue to procure additional F-22s would be to waste valuable resources that should be more usefully employed to provide our troops with weapons that they actually do need."
The President hailed the Senate result, saying the alternative would have been an inexcusable waste of money at a time when the US was fighting two wars and facing a serious deficit.
"I reject the notion that we have to waste billions of taxpayer dollars on outdated and unnecessary defence projects to keep this nation secure," he said.
Three months after the Rudd government was elected in late 2007, then defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon expressed interest in having the option to buy F-22s for the RAAF.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates played down the proposal, citing the difficulty caused by a US law that prohibits export sales of the Raptor. Dr Gates and the Pentagon believe the F-22 is not suited to unconventional warfare typical of recent conflicts.
The F-22, which has special radar-evading capability, is designed for combat against other fighter jets. It has not been used by the US during recent conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan because opposing forces have fought on land in towns or rough mountainous terrain, and without air forces.
The F-22, produced by Lockheed Martin, has also attracted criticism because it requires 30 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time.
Dr Gates believes the US should instead focus on buying F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The F-35 is a new-generation single-engine jet built for attacking targets on the ground.
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