WASHINGTON — Congress has promised to hold hearings after a Department of Defense watchdog turned up evidence that the contractor manufacturing the Air Force's planned F-24 Boyd fighter jet was also being contracted by the Chinese military to design a missile to shoot it down.
"We're going to get to the bottom of this," declared a visibly angry Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) in a session of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
The senator made his remarks after a report by the Pentagon Inspector General revealed that Virginia-based Pataiman, or Patriotic Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation, which received the bid to develop and build the F-24 in 2002, was also simultaneously developing China's PL-13 surface-to-air missile to shoot down the F-24.
Pataiman has denied any a conflict of interest and claimed the whole affair is a simple misunderstanding.
