U.S. Defense Department leaders may have effectively choked off further F-22 procurement through their narrow interpretation of fiscal 2009 defense lawmaking.

Despite some congressional insistence that the Pentagon spend $140 million in advance procurement for 20 F-22s in FY '09, Pentagon acquisition czar John Young on Nov. 19 stood by a DOD announcement last week to allocate only $50 million for long-lead parts for four aircraft.

"The law does not require me to buy these airplanes as [a block of] 20," Young told the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee, adding that his aim was to save the taxpayers money by acquiring the aircraft in a group of four now, and 16 in the next war supplemental "to preserve the options of the next administration."

He insisted that by only spending $50 million instead of the full $140 million, the DOD was saving taxpayers $90 million if the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama decides not to buy any more Raptors.

Lawmakers looking for more Raptors did not take kindly to Young's argument. "The defense bill is not negotiable and you will obey what the defense bill says," insisted Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) the subcommittee chair. "The question of the 20 aircraft is not an issue ... That is what the Congress said is going to be done."

But Young stuck to his guns, insisting the law only directed that not more than $140 million of the $523 million Congress authorized for F-22 advanced procurement could be spent until the next president certifies to Congress that continued production is in the national interest. That certification must be done between Jan. 21 and March 1, 2009, right after Obama takes office.

Abercrombie acknowledged the congressional language was crafted in a conference of House and Senate negotiators and could have been more clear in its intent. "Perhaps there should be a lesson to us in this," Abercrombie said at the hearing's end.

"It's a time problem," an exasperated congressional staffer admitted after the hearing, noting there wasn't time for the normal process of Government Accountability Office investigation and legal action to force an executive agency to do congressional bidding. "They have us right where they want us," the staffer said.

Still, some on Capitol Hill are showing their opposition by leaking a comparison of F-22 and F-35 unit procurement costs that show the most expensive F-35 -- which Pentagon civilian leaders want to accelerate -- will cost a lot more, at least until after 2010, than the most expensive F-22.

The price list used by lawmakers -- with numbers supposedly coming from the Air Force and the F-35 Joint Program Office -- shows F-22s in the FY '09 budget costing $143 million each. In 2010, the cost of 20 Raptors, funded in three increments, will cost $153 million, $163 million and $170 million - $178 million.

In comparison, 16 F-35A/B/Cs in the 2009 budget will cost $237 million each. In 2010, 12 F-35A will cost $203.1 million each and 18 F-35B/Cs will cost $198.1 million apiece. For unit costs over the total program in then-year dollars, 1,763 F-35As will cost $96.8 million per aircraft, while the 680 F-35B/Cs come in at $122.6 million.

Editor's Note: We have an interesting discussion about this topic over on Ares. Click here to read and join in the debate.

Editor's note: Erroneous figures in the second and fourth paragraphs of this story have been corrected.

Photo: U.S. Defense Department