F-22A Raptor Ready for Combat

Bloomberg.com

December 14, 2005

Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor Ready for Combat, Air Force Says

By Tony Capaccio

Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22A Raptor stealth fighter, the most expensive fighter plane ever built, is ready for wartime operations, the Air Force's top combat commander said today.

“If we go to war tomorrow, the Raptor will be with us,” Air Combat Command General Ronald Keys wrote of a plane that's weathered congressional and public debate on its relevance post-Cold War. The Air Force says it needs at least 381 Raptors but the Pentagon plans to buy only about 180 though 2010. Lockheed already has delivered 56. Boeing Co. is the top subcontractor.

Keys announced the plane's readiness in a memo to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne. The aircraft will initially be based with the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

The combat declaration comes 19 years after the Air Force started early development and 14 years after Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor, won the competition to take the plane into full-scale development and production.

The Air Force once envisioned buying 750 fighters at about $125 million apiece. The number was repeatedly cut and the inflation-adjusted unit cost is now $338 million -- a price that includes research and production dollars.

The F-22A is designed to handle threats in the air and on the ground and to have more speed and range than the fighter it's replacing, the F-15.

New Air Force Chief of Staff General Ted Moseley this week changed the aircraft's formal designation to F-22A from its longtime F/A-22 designation to be consistent with Air Force heritage that keeps only an “F” in front of the number.

The F-22A is capable of dropping two satellite-guided Boeing Joint Direct Attack Munitions as well as destroy enemy aircraft well beyond visual range with air-to-air missiles.

About $46 billion has been approved by Congress for F-22A spending since the 1980s. The program's total cost is $61 billion.