The Obama Administration is making a concerted push to derail Congressional plans to extend production of the F-22 Raptor beyond the Pentagon requested 187 aircraft. On Monday, as the full Senate began its deliberation of the 2010 defense policy bill, both the White House and the Pentagon sent letters to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz,), respectively, both of whom opposed the addition of extra F-22 money that sailed through the committee mark-up. President Barack Obama in his letter claimed he would veto any measure that includes more than 187 Raptors. Last week, Levin acknowledged the veto potential, but reportedly said he didn’t think the President would act on the threat. (Obama letter) (Pentagon letter, signed by Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen)
A new think tank analysis finds a hypothetical blended-wing body tanker could offer twice as much refueling performance as the KC-46A Pegasus and recommends the Air Force buy scores of them, as the service prepares to evaluate a BWB demonstrator next year and must juggle its future tanker plans with…