On Sept. 10, the full Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously agreed with the Fiscal 2010 defense spending bill proposed by its defense panel, which opted to add funds for 10 additional C-17s and kill the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine. Although the Senate appropriations bill contains no funds to continue production of the F-22 fighter—also killed in House spending bill—the lawmakers did include a provision to push forward with an export version, urging USAF to “start this effort” within funds appropriated for continued F-22 RDT&E. CongressDaily reports that a Senate aide calls this “a good next step,” toward removing the Obey amendment that prohibits F-22 export. (Conference report)
The Air Force is leaning toward a less-sophisticated autonomous aircraft in the second increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the services chief futurist said. He also suggested that the next increment of CCA may be air-launched, a la the "Rapid Dragon" experiments conducted by the service in recent years.