Dan Coats: “The Air Force has specified in testimony before us and in a public statement that they believe, with the adjustments…”

“The Air Force has specified in testimony before us and in a public statement that they believe, with the adjustments that Senator Cohen has made and the QDR has made in terms of the total number of planes to be built, they can meet the cost projection. It makes a great deal of sense, I think, for the Congress to say we encourage you very, very strongly--in fact, we will put language in to give that encouragement-- to meet that cost. If we are going to have a viable tactical modernization program in the future, given the realities of the budget that we have to deal with our entire defense structure, we have to set realistic cost caps on how much we will spend. If we don't do that, we will run into problems that we have run into before, as in B-2 and other modernization programs, and we jeopardize the entire tactical air modernization program as well as funding for other aspects of our national security. I think this makes perfect sense because we have something here that simply ratifies what the Air Force has said they can already do.”