House Appropriators included a provision in its 2008 defense spending bill (see above) that would prohibit foreign sales of the Air Force’s new F-22A Raptor, reports The Asahi Shimbun. Japan had expressed interest in buying the new stealth fighter. Last year, lawmakers removed a green light for foreign sales that had been included in the 2007 defense spending bill.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
