Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has added his voice to the Administration chorus chanting “veto, veto” if lawmakers enact a proposed $7 billion cut to the President’s request for the Fiscal 2006 defense spending bill. Of particular note in a letter Rumsfeld sent to appropriations legislators is his list of “particular concern” programs, which includes the Joint Strike Fighter, Space Radar, and the Transformation Satellite.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.