F-22 dead, but Georgia gets defense earmarks

By Bob Keefe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Washington -- A $626 billion defense spending bill passed by the U.S. Senate earlier this week would officially end production of the F-22 fighter jet that's assembled in Marietta -- but it also could send millions in research dollars to fund defense programs in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia.

Along with giving members of the military a 2.9 percent across-the-board pay raise and setting aside $128 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense appropriations bill contains about $2.7 billion in special requests by senators, commonly -- and controversially -- known as "earmarks."

Georgia's Republican U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss got more than $19 million worth of earmarks inserted into the bill, including:

*$4 million for research and development of surface-to-air missile simulators at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

*$2.5 million for research into wound care and tissue, bone and organ regeneration as part of a soldier survivability program at Georgia Tech.

*$2 million for a tissue transplant research program at Emory University in Atlanta designed to find new ways to help soldiers who lose limbs or suffer from severe burns in combat.

*$2.5 million for research and development of ceramic-based combat helmets by Verco Materials in Atlanta. The company was founded on technology developed by a Georgia Tech professor.

*$1.5 million for automated communications support systems designed by Atlanta-based voice and video search company Nexidia Inc. for the intelligence community, linguists and the military.

*$3 million for the development of signal processing equipment at the Mercer Engineering Research Center in Warner Robins.

*$3.6 million for the combat skills marksmanship program at Meggitt Training Systems, a private contractor in Suwanee.

The U.S. House approved its version of the 2010 defense spending bill in July. That bill includes funding for some of the same projects, inserted by Georgia congressmen. The House bill also contains numerous other earmarks by the state's congressional representatives that could steer millions more to Georgia companies and researchers for everything for advanced packaging for combat rations to defense policy programs at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

While the defense money could be a boon to Georgia companies and researchers, it doesn't come without criticism.

Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington watchdog group that tracks congressional earmarks, pointed out that none of the earmarks in the defense bills is for programs requested by the Defense Department.

The billions going to lawmakers' pet projects, he said, would probably be better used for direct support of troops.

"We have too many men and women in harm's way to make our funding decisions based on parochialism and political muscle," Ellis said. Defense bills are by far the biggest source of congressional earmarks, he added.

The defense money earmarked for Georgia projects isn't a done deal yet. Congressional negotiators must reconcile the differences in the House and Senate bills. They're expected to do so over the next several weeks. A final bill requires approval by the president.

The F-22 issue appears settled, however.

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and President Barack Obama said the Air Force didn't need any more of the $140-million-plus jets that are assembled at Lockheed Martin's plant in Marietta and capped the program at 187 planes already built or in the pipeline. Money saved on further production, they announced, was better directed to more pressing needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In canceling the program, Gates said he was ramping up production of another jet fighter, the F-35, that also is expected to employ workers in Marietta although a Lockheed Martin plant in Texas is the home base of that program.

Georgia lawmakers, led by Chambliss, waged an intense fight earlier this year to expand funding for the F-22 program, but they couldn't get enough votes to keep production going past 2011.