Concerns Over Airworthiness Of Older F-15s Prompts Consideration

More Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors will be produced over concerns about airworthiness issues in the fleet of jets it will ultimately replace, according to Defense Department officials.

"Pentagon insiders say the Office of the Secretary of Defense is planning ... to continue production" beyond the 183 F-22s due to be delivered by the end of 2011," defense analyst Loren Thompson, of the Arlington, VA-based Lexington Institute, told Reuters.

"Policymakers are under pressure ... because Cold War fighters are falling out of the sky due to age," he added, referring to the November 2 crash of an aging F-15C that prompted grounding of much of the F-15 fleet twice in November.

Air Force officials have not commented on the development yet.

"We stand by to support our customer as needed," said Rob Fuller, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson. The US Air Force once again grounded all of its Boeing Co. F-15A, B, C and D models this week -- 442 planes -- over fears of catastrophic structural failure near where the canopy meets the airframe. The most recent Boeing model F-15E continues to fly. Planning was under way to keep the F-22 line open beyond its currently scheduled end after 183 aircraft are delivered, according to a senior Defense Department official.

"The grounding of F-15s is focusing attention on the issue at high levels," said the unidentified official involved in discussions. The second F-15 grounding reversed a decision to allow operations after inspections prompted by the November 2 failure of a nearly 30-year-old Missouri Air National Guard F-15C while on a training flight.

The F-22 is the top U.S. air-to-air fighter, has a flyaway price of about $132 million each. A total of $3.15 billion is sought by Congress to buy 20 F-22s in fiscal 2008.

Lockheed Martin is also under contract from the Air Force to supply 40 more F-22s, at a rate of 20 per year, through the end of 2011, when production is scheduled to end. The F-22 is produced in cooperation between Boeing and Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Corporation unit that supplies the engines. Reuters reports that money was being put into the fiscal 2009 budget to buy "long-lead" items needed to go on manufacturing the F-22 after the last batch of 20 are delivered.

The Air Force has said that it wants to buy 381 of the stealth like radar resistant F-22s, up from the 183 previously limited by the Pentagon.

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com/products/f22/index.html