The F-22 Raptor, It’s Almost Time To Punt
A couple of weeks ago, in “The F-22 Raptor, Obama’s First Major Weapon Systems Decision,” I wrote that one of the first major weapon systems-related decisions the Obama administration will have to make is whether to purchase additional Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptors, after the last one of a 183 aircraft order has been delivered.
Well, the date for that decision is rapidly approaching.
According to the Washington Post, in today’s “Lockheed Says Cutting F-22 Would Cost Jobs“:
Obama must decide by March 1 whether to spend $523 million on 20 more of the radar-evading planes beyond the 183 already planned. Pentagon leaders, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, have expressed doubt that more F-22s are needed, especially since the military plans to buy several thousand F-35s, a much cheaper plane.
And, as the headline says:
Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the F-22 fighter jet, said thousands of jobs would be lost if President Obama decides not to continue funding for the advanced but costly plane. Larry Lawson, Lockheed’s general manager of the F-22 program, said the program is responsible for about 95,000 jobs at 1,000 suppliers.
A few days ago, the Post also reported that Senator Carl Levin, head of the U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee, is seriously talking about having to “cut or stretch out previously planned arms buying because of a budget crunch arising from efforts to shore up the rapidly declining U.S. economy.”
While Levin was mainly addressing the long-range U.S. antiballistic missile system (out of a $9 billion budget for ballistic missile defense—the costliest weapons development project—”about $3 billion is allocated to long-range missile defense and related antimissile technologies.”), other weapon systems and programs are vulnerable to cuts, including the F-22 Raptor program.
Having retired from both the U.S. Air Force and from Lockheed Martin, I will continue to keep an eye on F-22 developments and keep you posted.
The above “announcement” is also made in the interest of full disclosure.
For those who support the continuation of the F-22 fighter production, there is a web site, “Preserve Raptor Jobs,” where you can make such support known to legislators and the Obama administration.
The site urges:
Act Now!
Production of the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor, is in jeopardy. Your help is needed to urge the Obama Administration to save more than 95,000 American jobs and more than $12 billion in national economic activity. Keeping the production line of this model aerospace program open is not another bailout; rather, it simply requires that the new administration release funds already authorized by Congress to continue a successful program. By law, President-elect Obama must decide whether to continue the Raptor program during his first weeks in office. Please sign the petition to send the message to Congress that Obama must approve continuing the Raptor program, and send a letter to the White House urging the Administration to preserve F-22 Raptor production to protect American jobs, our economy, and national security!
8 Responses to “The F-22 Raptor, It’s Almost Time To Punt”
This isn't the only big-ticket item, but it's a well-known one, and part of a broader one, our costly “acquisition” or “procurement” problem (not limited to development and production costs). “Sticker shock” is not limited to state-of-the-art fighter aircraft; far from it!
IEEE has a series on the acquisitions or procurement problem, and I'll put up here the page that has the Raptor atop it, as it's pertinent.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/6931
P.S. One of the places I've been is in northwest Atlanta metro to do F-22 work, and it's a beautiful, if expensive, piece of work.
Don't be surprised if a few Senators try to get favored projects (with activity in their respective states) put into a revised stimulus package.
It's on the Canadians' minds, after all.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Business/Army+id…
My initial thought would be yes, we need a strong defense and upgrading our fighter jets is important. We have to insure air superiority in any engagement.
Your linked article quote “Pentagon leaders, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, have expressed doubt that more F-22s are needed…” Then I was moving toward a no, or at least a deferral to Secretary Gates. However, the F-35 (aka Joint Strike Fighter) is also a good plane and will produce jobs.
Then i was back to Yes. Take some of that 3billion for the “antiballistic missile system” and but it toward more F-22's. Even though relations with Russia are rocky ATM, I'm not sure we have to worry about ICBMs inbound for awhile. We need to keep an eye on China, North Korea, and others who are -or maybe- working on ICBM technology. I don't think that's as important as keeping our air force up-to-date.
Especially China someday! Can't view the planes in a vacuum and decide it's overkill. But procurement and overall costs are a problem, compounded no doubt by the desire of many libs 'n' Dems to loot Defense to spend the money on more feeling-good, vote-buying things, as well as to gut certain things simply out of political opposition to them (if not to Defense in general).
Rambie:
Your ambivalence is just a microcosm of the hopefully painstaking decision making process our military and elected leaders are going through at this very moment.
While I personally feel that additional F-22's should be built in the interim, some of my reasons are subjective and not based on a full body of data. However, I would hope that the final decision will be objective, free of political motives, and solely based on what our nation needs to maintain air superiority —as a subset of our national security.
Thanks for your comments.
Dorian
That's an interesting (series of) article(s), DLS.—on military acquisition programs
Thanks
I agree DE–it should be up to the objective,classified analysis-based needs of the uniformed services, i.e. the USAF. BUT the USAF is saying it needs 243 F-22 at a bare-bones minimum, AND the same civilian leaders who ordered the AF to stop talking to Congress about the F-22 are sick with “this war-itis” and incapable of thinking beyond 2010 and the entire future spectrum of conflict. WHY are the Chinese buying and/or building more Flankers than we have F-15/F-22? Why are they building 14 new classes of surface combat ships and 3 new classes of subs? Because in 2015-2030 they intend on owning the Pacific theater as their own exclusive “strategic sphere of interest”. The Peoples Lib Army and Navy have plans that will consume our allies and our friends. I'm not making this crap up. It's all out there on their web, their PLA publications, their own defectors stories. For 15% of the money we lost LAST WEEK on assets purchased by TARP we could buy the 60 F-22s the AF needs. Thats <1% of the proposed Stimulus bill!!
Interesting stuff, MW. But, “243 more F-22's”? How about the Lightning II's presently in development?