A Senate panel approved an annual defense spending bill Thursday that adds $1.2 billion to the Pentagon budget to pay for 12 additional F-35 joint strike fighters.
The legislation would fund a total of 89 of the high-tech combat aircraft after the military asked for 77 for the coming year.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to pass the $675 billion spending bill to the full Senate for a possible floor vote.
The Pentagon and Congress’ armed services committees had called for 75 to 77 F-35s in the 2019 budget, but House and Senate appropriators have proposed hiking the purchases.
The House version of the 2019 defense appropriations bill was poised to pass on that chamber’s floor on Thursday and pay for 93 of the joint strike fighters, which are part of the most expensive Pentagon weapons program in history. The aircraft are made by defense giant Lockheed Martin.
The Senate appropriations bill also gives the Navy $24 billion for construction of 13 new ships. That includes an additional littoral combat ship that the service did not request.
Shipyards in Wisconsin and Alabama where Lockheed and Austal USA build the small surface ship warned of worker layoffs if the Navy bought only one LCS in 2019.
