White House trades new weapons to support troops

WASHINGTON, Mar 13 (Reuters) The White House plans to shift 3.2 billion dollars in defense spending -- partly from new weapons like the Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter -- to support troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, a trade publication reported.

In a letter to Congress detailing revised plans for its fiscal 2007 emergency wartime spending request, the White House said it would reduce spending on three aircraft programs by 923 million dollaars, freeing up money for armor kits and transport vehicles needed by US troops.

The letter was obtained and released by insidefense.com yesterday.

''Items ... that have been used as offsets have been deemed less timely or lower priorities than those in the current request,'' said the letter from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

It said it would remove 388 million dollar for five Lockheed C-130J transport planes; 146 million dollar for one CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing Co. and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc.; and 9 million for Lockheed F-35s.

Instead, it would spend an additional 1.5 billion dollar on armor kits and transport vehicles, including 500 million dollar for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, the newest generation of tactical vehicles designed to protect troops against mines and roadside bombs.

General Dynamics Corp. has already won a contract for some of the new vehicles, but Britain's BAE Systems Plc and Armor Holdings are also in line to get orders for the new vehicles, said defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.

Thompson said the proposed changes confirmed defense industry fears that money was beginning to flow out of weapons programs and into personnel and other near term needs.

He said it also marked a reversal of the Pentagon's decision last fall to include all the costs of the global war on terror in its supplemental funding request.

''What these changes show is the tug back and forth between near-term needs and long-term moderation, and as usual, near-term needs are winning out,'' Thompson said.

Reuters AD VP0645