So wie es aussieht, hat es der F-22 geschafft, der Start zur Vollproduktion wurde freigegeben:
WASHINGTON -- Top Pentagon officials have approved the Air Force's F/A-22 Raptor fighter jet for full-rate production, a significant milestone for a program whose soaring costs and changing missions have triggered cutbacks and heavy criticism.
The Defense Acquisition Board, made up of senior Defense Department weapons buyers, voted in secret Tuesday to ramp up production of the Raptor, a Pentagon official confirmed Wednesday.
The decision means the Pentagon can continue with plans to buy 25 planes next year, 29 planes in 2007 and 32 planes - considered peak production - in 2008.
The vote, while not a surprise, comes as a major psychological boost to backers of the Raptor, a stealthy, supersonic fighter first conceived to fight Soviet MiG jets during the Cold War.
When the Soviet threat disappeared, the Raptor was transformed into a ground-attack fighter, and the number of planes to be purchased was slashed from 750 to 277. President Bush's 2006 budget calls for cutting the program again, down to 179 planes, to save $10.5 billion.
While the fate of that proposal remains uncertain, opposition to the Raptor from the Defense Acquisition Board could have delayed production even further.
"Endorsement of full-rate production implies confidence that there are no unresolved issues," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute who has close ties to senior Pentagon officials.
"We're very pleased," said the defense official, who asked not to be identified. "This was an important milestone as we move toward initial operating capability."
The first operating squadron of Raptors is scheduled to be ready to deploy at Langley Air Force Base by December. Over the next several years, Langley could be home to nearly 80 Raptors, which are designed to replace the aging F-15C fighters.
Glenn Flood, a Pentagon spokesman, had no comment on the Raptor decision Wednesday because the Defense Department has not made any official announcement yet of the board's action. A detailed, written decision may not yet be completed, officials said.
The need for a next-generation Air Force fighter - and the number of Raptors required - will be reassessed later this year as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a comprehensive study of all weapons programs conducted once every four years.
If Bush's latest budget proposal prevails, the purchase of Raptors would end in 2008. But some defense-budget writers in Congress are pushing to continue the program.
The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has been sharply critical of the Raptor program in recent years. In a report this month, it faulted the Air Force for not developing a new business case to justify continued spending on a costly warplane whose mission has changed radically over the last 19 years of planning and development.
Noting the dramatic changes in the purpose of the F/A-22 since it was first conceived in 1986, the GAO said, "Air Force leaders have not developed a new business case for investing billions more dollars to modernize the aircraft that reflects this change."
The $72 billion program could require another $11.7 billion to complete modernization plans, the GAO estimated. Once known as the F-22, Air Force leaders redubbed the plane the F/A-22, inserting the "A" to emphasize the new "attack" role of the plane in striking targets on the ground, now that the Soviet threat has evaporated.
But if the program is now cut short, as the Bush budget proposes, the early termination in 2008 "places much of the modernization program in doubt and renders the current plan obsolete," the GAO concluded.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-91127sy0mar31,0,4165079.story?coll=dp-headlines-topnews
