Lawmakers celebrate multi-year Boeing fighter contract

Lawmakers are rallying behind the Pentagon’s decision to buy 124 Boeing naval fighter jets between now and 2013.

“This decision is a tremendous win for our men and women in uniform, taxpayers, and America’s defense industrial base,” said Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), who along with the rest of the Missouri delegation, has been one of the program’s biggest boosters, along with other lawmakers from Missouri, where Boeing's defense operations are based. Next week, Bond, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), Rep. Todd Akin (R) and Rep. Russ Carnahan (D) will celebrate, bringing a simulator of the jet to Capitol Hill.

Members of Congress and Boeing, which makes the F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet and the EA18-G Growler, an electronic attack variant, have pushed the Pentagon hard to buy these jets in bulk, arguing that the a multi-year buy will save money, support the industrial base and keep a shortage of fighter jets from worsening.

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