Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), whose House Appropriations defense panel just opted to add 12 F-22 Raptors to the 2010 defense spending bill, told reporters following his announcement of the markup that he believes a deal can be struck with the Obama Administration. According to an Associated Press report, Murtha said, “We’ll work it out. In the end, the bill won’t be vetoed.” One defense consultant told AP, a compromise might mean not getting as many additional Raptors as lawmakers would like—which some have said is at least 20 more aircraft—and with the production slowed to stretch over more years.
The Defense Innovation Unit is gearing up for the first flight of its commercially developed hypersonic testbed as soon as the end of February—part of a larger project to quickly increase the cadence of the Pentagon’s hypersonic flight testing and field advanced, high-speed systems and components at scale.
