Retired Air Force Brig. General Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Thursday that the modern military’s procurement systems can’t be “corrupt,” as he suggested was the case when the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., led the charge in Congress to scrap production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet.
“I was there when F-22 [Raptor] was killed,” Holt said on “The Chris Salcedo Show.” “I was working for the secretary and the chief at the time. My brother, my little brother, who would go on to be a two-star general, was the contracting officer of the Air Force. He negotiated and actually fought in spaces with John McCain about the number that John McCain wanted to cut from the Air Force so that they could go get the Navy’s LCS [Littoral Combat Ships], which they’re throwing away now. So, we have had disaster after disaster in procurement, and today’s modern warfare won’t permit us to have overbloated corrupt procurement systems.”
President Donald Trump floated the possibility of developing an upgrade to the F-22 Raptor – called the F-22 Super – while speaking at a meeting of business leaders in Doha, Qatar in May.
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