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Air Force still bullish on F-22 Raptor stealth fighter(Knight Ridder Washington Bureau (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) MARIETTA, Ga. _ The Government Accountability Office calls it a "case study" in cost overruns and schedule delays. But to the workers who make it and the pilots who fly it, the F-22 Raptor is more than ready to make its debut as a warfighter, even as lawmakers continue to skirmish over its $130 million-a-copy price tag. Here at a cavernous plant not far from downtown Atlanta, Lockheed Martin workers churn out two Raptors a month along an assembly line stretching nearly half a mile. Model 083 will nose its way out the door by mid-August, ultimately joining a steadily expanding Raptor fleet now spread across four bases. The Air Force envisions at least seven squadrons of between 18 to 20 Raptors and has already taken possession of 76 fighters. Future squadrons will based at Elmendorf near Anchorage, Alaska, and Hickam in Hawaii to bolster U.S. security in the Pacific against potential threats from China and North Korea. "We're ready now," said Lt. Col. Wade "Troll" Tolliver, commander of an F-22 squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va. "If the call and flag went up today, they could call us tomorrow and we could deploy to anywhere in the world." Built by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, the stealthy, twin-engine warplane is widely portrayed as the hottest fighter in the world. It can "super-cruise" at one and a half times the speed of sound without gas-guzzling afterburners, reach a top speed of 1,500 miles an hour and sniff out enemy airplanes long before being detected. The Air Force considers it a top priority along with Lockheed Martin's joint strike fighter, which is still in development, and hopes to ultimately acquire at least 381 _ far more than the current production cap of 183. Under current Pentagon plans, production will end in 2011, but congressional supporters, echoing the wishes of the Air Force brass, hope to keep the assembly line open for at least a few more years. The $65 billion Raptor program is also a mainstay for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. More than 1,600 workers at the Fort Worth Lockheed Martin plant build the mid-fuselage while Boeing workers in Seattle build the tail and rear section. The aircraft is assembled at Lockheed Martin's Marietta plant, where more than 2,000 are assigned to the F-22. Since its inception in 1986, the Raptor has been plagued by design problems, delays and cost overruns, forcing the government to steadily shrink the planned purchase, originally projected at more than 700 models. Developmental costs increased 109 percent over a 19-year period, according to a report last month by the Government Accountability Office, the investigating arm for Congress. "The program has been a case study in cost increases and schedule inefficiency in major weapon system acquisitions," said David M. Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, who heads the GAO. Walker testified in a Senate subcommittee hearing headed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a presumed 2008 presidential candidate who is critical of the F-22's rising costs. McCain and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., are opposing a plan that would fund the F-22 on a multiyear basis, saying it would limit year-by-year scrutiny of the program. "It's always been behind schedule and over cost," McCain said last week, "but we always hope for the best." The funding battle escalated following disclosures that the head of a think tank that projected a $225 million savings from multiyear funding serves on the board of an F-22 subcontractor. Retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, president of the Institute for Defense Analyses, denied doing anything improper and said he had no direct involvement in the study. Both the House and Senate have endorsed multiyear funding but the issue could resurface when House and Senate negotiators meet next month to resolve differences over defense spending. Although the warplane has been a perpetual target of budget hawks and government watchdog groups, the Raptor has substantial support in Congress _ in part because hundreds of suppliers and contractors for the program are located in all but a handful of states. Now, as the F-22 takes its place as the newcomer in an otherwise aging fleet of Air Force fighters, its boosters hope to close the door on the aircraft's troubled past. "The F-22 program is not about looking back, it's about looking forward and at what the future holds," said Lockheed F-22 spokesman Joe Quimby, predicting that the F-22 "will be relevant for 40 years." Initially planned as a super-hot dogfighter to replace the F-15, the Raptor has since been modified to attack targets on the ground as well as confront enemy aircraft in the skies. There has also been talk of a two-seat bomber version as the Pentagon moves toward developing a new long-range bomber by 2018. Air Force officials plan to assign two squadrons at Elmendorf and another at Hickam as part of an overall Pacific strategy to counter a growing military buildup by China. The first of 36 planes destined for Elmendorf will begin arriving in the summer of 2007, Gen. Paul Hester, commander of the U.S. Air Force in the Pacific, told reporters last week. (EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE) "What they want to do with the plane is to try to encourage the Chinese to continue to think about being an economic partner with America and not just think about being a military competitor," said John. E. Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Internet military research site. Pike said it is unlikely that the Air Force would dispatch F-22s to Iraq, where F-15s and F-16s are used to attack ground targets. Its central mission, he said, would be to take out enemy air forces and demonstrate its "kick-down-the-door capability" on the first day of the conflict. Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said potential adversaries are beginning to buy warplanes superior to the F-16s and F-15s currently in the U.S. fleet. China is increasingly manufacturing its own version of Russia's Sukoi fighters. In addition to confronting a threat from the air, F-22s have also been equipped with ultra-sophisticated software and sensors and can be used to take out surface-to-air missile sites. "Troll" Tolliver, who commands the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley, said F-22s performed in their first major war games in June, traveling 3,200 miles from Virginia to participate in Exercise Northern Edge in Alaska. Within a week, he said, Raptors scored 144 kills and sustained no losses. "Every day this jet just gets better and better," he said. "The more we fly it, the more we learn." ___ (c) 2006, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. _____ ARCHIVE PHOTOS on MCT Direct (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): F-22 For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |