Pentagon Decides Not to Cancel C-130J.

The Pentagon yesterday abandoned a plan to kill Lockheed Martin Corp.'s C-130J transport plane contract, after determining it would cost almost as much to cancel the program as to complete it.

The decision was praised by the program's supporters in Congress and by Lockheed, which builds the plane at its Marietta, Ga., plant. It was decried as pork barrel politics by critics who have questioned the plane's suitability for service and say termination costs are being exaggerated.

Lockheed has delivered 62 of the planes to the Air Force and Marines and is currently scheduled to deliver 55 more at a cost of about $66 million each.

Several models of the C-130 are used to transport equipment and troops around the world.

(5-12-05, The Washington Post.)