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RAPTOR RAPTURE? Until recently, the F-22 Raptor was the most expensive project in Pentagon history. And, as with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that later claimed that mantle, the members of a congressional subcommittee looking into the troubled fighter benefit inordinately from contributions from the jet's prime contractor, according to a report out today from the Project on Government Oversight, which cites data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
RAPTOR RAPTURE? Until recently, the F-22 Raptor was the most expensive project in Pentagon history. And, as with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that later claimed that mantle, the members of a congressional subcommittee looking into the troubled fighter benefit inordinately from contributions from the jet's prime contractor, according to a report out today from the Project on Government Oversight, which cites data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
The
F-22 was built to to fight a Soviet jet that was never produced, and
despite American involvement in two wars, the stealth fighter has yet to
fly a single mission -- in part because of cost. Each hour of flight costs almost exactly as much as the median American household earns in a year,
about $50,000. Adding to that, the F-22 has been plagued with problems
-- most notably the troubling possibility that the jet is suffocating its pilots.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once ridiculed proponents of
the F-22 for suggesting that the jet might be used to go after Somali pirates.
The
POGO report found that "[a]ll but one of the 25 subcommittee members
have received contributions in the current election cycle from
individuals or political action committees associated with Lockheed
Martin, the prime contractor on the F-22." The sole outlier was Todd R. Platts (R-PA),
who doesn't accept campaign contributions from special interest groups.
Platts aside, POGO's analysis found that on average, lawmakers on the
panel received 46 percent more campaign money from Lockheed Martin and
its employees than did the average congressperson.
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