From Aviation Week

 

Support For More F-22 Soars in Congress

Jan 20, 2009

By Amy Butler

 

Even before President-elect Barack Obama to takes office Jan. 20, U.S. lawmakers are making a push in letters addressed to him to secure the future of the stealthy F-22 production line in Marietta, Ga.

 

Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Patty Murray (D-WA) sent a letter to Obama Jan. 16 requesting funding for production for the twin-engine fighter. Citing a flyaway cost reduction of 35 percent, the senators also say the end of the fighter’s production could further drain the U.S. economy in the midst of a recession. A decision is needed by early March to avoid gaps in the production line.

 

Flyaway cost is now estimated at about $153 million. Lockheed Martin has seen approval to produce 187 fighters, but the Air Force continues to say it will require more of the aircraft to handle future threats such as the SA-20 and S-300/400 advanced air defense systems thought to be proliferating among potential adversaries.

 

A similar letter is being circulated among House members and is said to have at least 150 signatures. Though departing Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has been cool on the idea of continued F-22 production, Defense Secretary Robert Gates - who is staying on under Obama - has signaled interest in at least considering additional buys.

 

The senators, in their letter, claim the F-22 “provides over $12 billion of economic activity to the national economy.” Layoffs are likely if the production line doesn’t receive additional funding. The F-22 program is estimated to cost $64.5 billion, including the research and production phases.

From Defense Aerospace

 

President Obama Will Decide the Fate of F-22 This Month

(Source: Lexington Institute; issued February 17, 2009)

 

Sometime in the next dozen days, President Obama will make his first big decision about America's future military capabilities. The fiscal 2009 defense authorization act requires the President to tell the Congress by March 1 whether the nation's interest is best served by purchasing more F-22 fighters, or ceasing production. If he decides to end the program, contractor Lockheed Martin will begin laying off workers almost immediately, as will dozens of suppliers. The Air Force will have to make do with the 183 planes it has already ordered.

 

I don't normally discuss defense spending in the first person, because it undercuts the image of objectivity to which we analysts all aspire. But after writing about why the F-22 is needed for a dozen years -- more than I have discussed any other weapons program -- I want to make this last commentary before the President's decision personal.

 

What follows is not a discussion about jobs, or politics, or America's place in the world. It is about the role the F-22 plays in our war plans, and what would happen to our soldiers and sailors and marines if it were not available in sufficient numbers.

 

The greatest gift that has been given to America's warfighters in my lifetime is command of the air. That phrase -- "command of the air" -- is the way the first great exponent of air power described the ability to control and use the air space above our own country and the other nations of the world. Command of the air is the central, indispensable mission of the F-22. It is the reason why the plane is stealthier than any other aircraft in the world, why it is more maneuverable, why it is more fuel efficient at high speeds, and why it is crammed with more sensors and computing power than any plane of similar size. Command of the air is also why it costs so much -- about $150 million for each additional plane.

 

What does that high cost get us?

 

-- an Air Force that can use all its other planes in wartime without fear of horrendous losses;

-- an Army that can continue to operate, as it has over the last 50 years, without suffering any casualties from hostile aircraft;

-- and a defense posture that can deter war without threatening the use of nuclear weapons.

 

Every potential aggressor in the world knows that if it faces the F-22 in aerial combat it will lose, and that if the F-22 is sent to attack targets in its nation, the targets will be destroyed. Our enemies cannot see the plane with their radars, and they cannot catch it with their fighters. They are defenseless against it, and will remain so for decades to come.

 

No other weapon in our arsenal provides that kind of defense and that kind of deterrence. The F-35 joint strike fighter will deliver similar stealthiness, but it lacks the agility and awareness of F-22. That is why the two planes were designed to operate together -- because there are many things F-22 can do that F-35 cannot.

 

Which makes the F-22 a bargain in a way that tanks and destroyers will never be. It enables the success of all the other weapons and warfighters in the joint force. But if our nation is to benefit fully from the promise of the F-22 then we must buy enough to cover the world, and 183 planes simply isn't enough to do that.

 

(By Lauren Thompson, Ph.D.)

From Aviation Week

 

USAF Chief Defends F-22 Need, Capabilities

Feb 17, 2009

By Amy Butler

 

U.S. Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff, says more stealthy F-22s are needed – though less than the 381 required by the service in recent years - yet he has stopped short of identifying how many more.

 

“We looked at this in a dispassionate and analytical way” and produced a number that “I feel is credible,” Schwartz said during a Defense Writers’ Group breakfast this morning in Washington. The general said he would not release his new number until presenting it to Defense Secretary Robert Gates - but he noted he would not disagree with statements from Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told Congress 60 more F-22s were needed.

 

This would include orders of about 20 aircraft per year for three years. Lockheed Martin currently has orders for 183 of the twin-engine aircraft.

 

The top four-star USAF general further said it is a “sign of a healthy institution” when it is “willing to revisit its own beliefs.”

 

Gates has ordered a quick-turnaround review of major Pentagon programs ahead of submission of a fiscal 2010 budget. In this review, Gates has directed eight teams to look at the following areas: tactical aircraft, mobility, shipbuilding, network centric capabilities, rotary-wing systems, missile defense, irregular warfare and nuclear capabilities, according to an industry official. Gates is said to be placing an emphasis on technologies that can help with “irregular warfare,” or nontraditional warfighting capabilities, as the Pentagon expects continued battles against non-state actors and insurgent forces for many years.

 

Such a rebalancing of the military force could prompt senior leaders at the Pentagon to assume more risk in traditional warfighting areas, such as air-to-air combat or lead-in operations in the opening hours of a major theater war. Leaders are now looking at how much risk is appropriate for the capabilities offered by systems such as the F-22, Schwartz said. The general notes that any added systems the Air Force wants in the FY ‘10 budget will be paid for with suggested cuts by the service.

 

The new F-22 analysis presumes deliveries of operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighters will commence as planned in 2013 and 2014 without delay.

 

Schwartz defended the F-22’s mission capability (MC) rates. Pentagon acquisition chief John Young criticized the low MC rates last fall, noting that Raptors are ready for a mission around 62 percent of the time, if its low-observable requirements are met (DAILY, Nov. 20). Reliability goes up above 70 percent for missions with lower stealth demands.

 

Schwartz said the F-22’s performance is “respectable,” especially when compared with the first-generation stealthy F-117 and the B-2 bomber. “These are not numbers to be scoffed at,” he says.

 

Young also has criticized plans to spend another $8 billion on the F-22 to modify it from its air-to-air role to also take on ground targets. Schwartz noted that this block upgrade plan has been in the works for a long time.

 

Schwartz was cool on the notion of developing an export version of the F-22. Japan has expressed interest in buying the system, but the so-called Obey Amendment, named after the top House appropriator who drafted the language years ago, prohibits foreign Raptor sales.

 

Citing the cost associated with developing an export variant, Schwartz said, “I don’t see that in the cards now.”