Do you support proposals to reduce the size of the Joint Strike Fighter buy?

Obama's been letting that slide since he became president. He's trying to reduce it this year, then next year and keep reducing it. That makes the price per copy go up. I just came back from the Farnborough air show, and we saw technology and propulsion systems that France, Italy and other countries have. We're getting behind the curve on this. So we had a lot of sales for the F-35, and as we reduce our take, that increases their price, and [the administration is] canceling them now, which increases the price even more.

Gen. James Cartwright, the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has talked about reducing the nuclear stockpile. What are your thoughts on that?

I disagreed with Obama on the New Start treaty. That would put the U.S. on parity with Russia in the reduction of our warheads to 1,550. And he left out tactical weapons, where they outnumber us 10 to one. [Obama] was saying, 'We'll reduce our arsenal below the required 1,550 warheads by 80%,' and then even whispering, 'We'll do more than that.' The worst thing he did was do away with the ground-based missile interceptor in Poland. Then he tried to put together this system where we're using Aegis ships [for missile defense] to save money.

What do you think about the Defense Department's investments in biofuels?

If anyone has to do this silly stuff, it should be the Energy Department—that's their job. We're paying $450 a gallon for 20,000 gallons of fuel to be used in our aircraft. This is stuff you can get for $3 a gallon. We're throwing away billions of dollars on this green agenda. [The Senate Armed Services Committee has passed] my amendment, the Inhofe-McCain amendment, which says you can't spend more on fuel for any of our military vehicles—including ships and airplanes—than the cost of [conventional] fuel.

Your Pilots Bill of Rights has been signed into law.

When [former Sen.] John Glenn retired, that left me as the Senate's only remaining active commercial pilot. Not a week goes by that I don't get a call from someone saying, 'We got hit by the FAA in some inspection and they're going to take my license away.' It's the last holdout in this country where you are guilty until proven innocent. This law, it says that in the event that something happens in the field, the FAA can't take action against you until you have access to the evidence that will be used against you for at least 30 days.