In a rare occurrence last week, the Senate smoothly voted to terminate the nation’s premier F-22 fighter jet program, an argument favored by President Obama and his top military advisers. The logic behind the move was straightforward and well articulated: in an era of small wars and counterinsurgency efforts, the F-22’s are no longer needed for the nation’s defense and would be a costly drag on the Pentagon’s budget. 

Besides being a win for President Obama, the decision was a key policy victory for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Gates, who has been campaigning against the plane since April. Gates is now one step further on his mission to reshape America’s priorities and reform the way the Pentagon procures weapons, he discussed in a Chicago speech last week. 

The F-22, which cost an average of $350 million a piece, was conceived in the 1980’s for aerial combat against future Soviet fighters. (Think Top Gun.) Currently, the Cold War is over, and after the barbarous bonding experience between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and our own President Obama in July, the chances of Soviet aerial threats has diminished. For now, the F-22’s already on order, in conjunction with other warplanes such as the modernized F-35 and 187 F-22’s currently in use, will sufficiently defend the country.  

While the vote in the Senate was won by with a 58 to 40 margin, the fight for the “silver bullet” of the skies did not go down without a fight. As usual, lawmakers debated over several days, as they’ve done in the past, whether the fighters are needed to counter a military threat from Russia or China. But the nation’s current economic woes may have played a larger role in the vote than military strategy.  

The chief Senate critics of the F-22 were Armed Services Committee Chairman, Carl Levin (D-MI), and the committee’s top Republican, Sen. John McCain. Although the plane’s supporters worried that its cancellation would eliminate thousands of jobs at a time of economic hardship, the Maverick and his supporters attacked what they call pork barrel spending by the government on weapons and decided the F-22 deserved no additional funds at a time of pressing social needs.  

In all, 14 members of the president’s party voted to keep the F-22 production line going, while 14 Republicans joined McCain in voting to shut it down. Other Democrats including Senators James Webb (VA), Mark Warner (VA), and Benjamin L. Cardin (MD) all supported stopping the program.  

Another factor in the debate over the program, which began heating up in April, was the hypocritical demand for the planes played off by Republicans. Renowned American Economist and author Paul Krugman noted during the debate that the very same Republican congressmen who were denouncing the stimulus, saying government spending never ‘creates jobs,’ were switching their words and saying that cutting defense spending costs jobs. Some conservatives also argued that defunding the F-22 program would weaken national security; however, not a single mission flown in Iraq or Afghanistan has used the F-22. 

After the vote, Obama summed up the proceedings bluntly by saying that buying the extra planes would have been “an inexcusable waste of money,” and that “our troops and citizens lose” if more defense dollars go to F-22’s.