Payoffs vs Bob Gates--Gunfight at the Pentagon Corral
Pentagon Chief Calls for Cuts; Congress Opens Fire By Dana Milbank Tuesday, April 7, 2009; A02 The F-22 Raptor fighter can cruise at speeds greater than Mach 1.5 without afterburners. It is virtually invisible to enemies, carries two 1,000-pound missiles and can turn on a dime. But there is one foe the F-22 was not designed to defeat: Defense Secretary Bob Gates. "We will end production of the F-22 fighter," Gates announced matter-of-factly in the hushed Pentagon briefing room yesterday, dispatching Lockheed Martin's $140-million-a-pop aircraft without even a hint of regret. "For me," he added, "it was not a close call." . . . Boeing's Future Combat Systems fighting vehicles -- kaboom! . . . Lockheed's multiple-kill vehicle: killed. . . Northrop Grumman and General Dynamics' DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer with Raytheon electronics? Gates sunk their battleship. . . The Lockheed VH-71 presidential helicopter and Boeing's C-17 cargo plane? SecDef shot them down, too.