May Trim Original Request From 200 Planes, To 60

Faced with a new administration and an economic recession, it appears the US Air Force will quit fighting Pentagon planners, and back off its insistence it needs another 200 F-22 Raptor fighters from Lockheed Martin.

Bloomberg says Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz confirmed the decision on Tuesday. "Our basic approach is if we want something, we are going to have to pay for it," he said.

The Pentagon allocated no money for more F-22s in the 2010 budget draft. Congress had told the Air Force it might appropriate the money separately, but the service was given until March 1 to ask.

While declining to specify exactly how many more Raptors the Air Force will seek, Schwartz declined to dispute an estimate of 60 offered in December by Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The F-22's pricetag is $354 million, including research and development costs. Should the Obama administration opt to discontinue all work on the F-22 -- and that's still a possibility -- Lockheed would built the last F-22 of the Air Force's original 183-plane order in 2011.

FMI: www.af.mil, www.lockheedmartin.com