House passes 2010 DOD spending bill; includes 10 C-17's

On Tuesday, December 16th, the House passed the Department of Defense's fiscal year 2010 spending bill, totaling $636.3 billion.  $2.5 billion of that amount will be used for purchasing 10 additional C-17 Globemaster III cargo aircraft.  This is welcome news for Boeing, since the Obama administration had explicitly stated that they did not want any more C-17's than the 205 aircraft already on order.  This is also great news for the C-17 plant in Long Beach, California, as well as the hundreds of C-17 suppliers scattered around the nation.  With the lifeline extended indefinitely, it could potentially buy the program more time to seek follow-on orders from foreign governments, most notably those who need a stopgap solution to their air-cargo capability as they wait for EADS' A400M airlifter to become fully operational.  The bill also includes $465 million for the highly-controversial F-35 Joint Strike Fighter second engine program, as well as $45 million to recoup R&D costs from the development of the also-controversial VH-71 Presidential helicopter program, but no money was included to purchase additional F-22 Raptor stealth fighters aside from the 187 already on order.

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