F 22

PERHAPS THE most unexpected - and intelligent - act by last year's Congress was the vote by the House to cut one of the largest single items in the federal budget: Construction funds for the Pentagon's F-22 fighter jet. The vote was overwhelming, 379 to 45. After the House vote, a highly unusual scenario unfolded as President Clinton joined Senate Republicans in calling for the full restoration of F-22 funds. The White House threatened to veto the defense appropriations bill over this issue.

WASHINGTON - Streamlining and restructuring military spending for conflicts like Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates proposed on Monday adding special force troops, cyber-war capabilities, theater missile defense systems to protect troops and unmanned aerial vehicles while slashing some big-war, big-ticket programs such as the supersonic stealth F-22 fighter made by Lockheed Martin of Bethesda. The proposed cancellation of the F-22 production line, which had long been expected, potentially threatens about 625 jobs in Maryland at Lockheed Martin and some subcontractors, according to Lockheed.

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Lockheed Martin Corp. has delayed the first flight of its F-22 fighter plane after finding a potential problem related to the fuel system.The flight had been scheduled for this weekend.The concern involves "the electrical connections to the fuel tank probes," the company said in a statement. "It is necessary to inspect all fuel probe connections as a safety precaution."Those inspections mean final ground tests that must be completed before the F-22 can fly won't be done until next week at the earliest.

While Washington prepares to inject Maryland with billions in new stimulus projects on one hand, it's contemplating turning off a Maryland job machine with another. The clock strikes midnight on March 1 for Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor, a "stealth" jet fighter that has been in development for more than a decade and in production since 2003. President Barack Obama has to decide by then whether to extend Raptor purchases beyond the 183 already built or under contract. A "no" would mean work would start to wind down next year and the last F-22 would roll out of Lockheed's Marietta, Ga., plant in 2011.

The Pentagon delayed for a year yesterday a decision on whether to begin producing the new F-22 stealth fighter, but said the $62 billion Lockheed Martin Corp. program is not in trouble.Undersecretary of Defense Jacques Gansler, criticized by Congress for moving too quickly on the F-22, said the Defense Department would decide on low-rate production in December 1999 instead of late this year, as scheduled, so it can examine additional test results.But he stressed that initial flight testing of the plane had gone well and that $595 million would be committed to Lockheed at the end of this year to build two additional "production representative" aircraft in 1999.

CONGRESS DID a shabby job of holding the Pentagon and defense contractors accountable for the towering cost of the F-22 Raptor plane. The system is now twice as expensive as the Pentagon first estimated, and it's threatening to suck money away from the purchase and maintenance of other key defense systems.As next year's budget for the F-22 moves to discussion in a House-Senate conference committee, lawmakers ought to be thinking about how far this system should be pursued -- or whether it should be abandoned altogether.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin Corp. are pressing to complete testing of the F-22 jet fighter so that the Pentagon can authorize production of the first 10 aircraft before the new administration takes office Jan. 20. Top aides to President-elect George W. Bush have said they want to review all tactical aircraft programs, including the F-22. Winning the $2.1 billion production contract for the F-22 before that review begins would signify financial and political support for the program - which ultimately is worth at least $37.9 billion - and make it less prone to major cuts, analysts say. The Air Force appears to be copying the Army, which announced a $4 billion contract in November to General Motors Defense and General Dynamics Corp.

A $500 million cut proposed by the Senate could delay Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 fighter plane program for two years and actually increase its overall cost, the Pentagon has warned.The Department of Defense made the predictions this week in what one congressional staffer called its traditional "sky-is-falling" letter, which weighs in on issues that House and Senate conferees will have to settle later this year when they reconcile competing versions of the defense budget.The House has approved the full $2.1 billion that the Pentagon wants for the F-22 for next year, but the Senate authorized only about $1.6 billion.

Despite the budget-balancing mood in Congress, support for a fighter-plane program crucial to Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s local plant remains firm, a visiting Air Force general told workers at the plant yesterday.The F-22, the Air Force's next-generation fighter, would use a Westinghouse radar under development in Linthicum to detect an enemy plane, launch missiles and destroy the target before the opponent can react."We are betting the future of this country's ability to attain and maintain air superiority on Westinghouse's ability to deliver the world's best radar," Lt. Gen. Richard E. Hawley said in a press briefing at the manufacturing plant, which has been building military radars since the early days of World War II. "We think we have made a good bet."

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Lockheed Martin Corp. is within days of the first test flight of the F-22 fighter, the U.S. Air Force's most important weapon under development, company spokesman Jeff Rhodes said yesterday.The Air Force plans to spend about $43 billion for production of 339 F-22s during the next 20 years.If the newest supersonic, radar-evading fighter flies this weekend as scheduled, it will mark the end of a series of glitches that delayed the first test flight from May.Those problems included locking brakes, flight-software problems, an engine problem and a fuel leak.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military's top weapons buyer has approved signing a three-year contract with Lockheed Martin Corp. and United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney engine unit for 60 F-22A Raptor warplanes, engines and spare parts, a package worth as much as $10 billion. Approval of the three-year contract locks the military into purchases and minimizes chances that quantities would be cut in annual congressional budget deliberations. $65.2 billion program The Pentagon in 2005 capped the program at 183 aircraft.

ATLANTA - The Pentagon has approved rapid production of F/A-22 Raptor fighters, but that doesn't mean the Air Force will get all the planes it wants. A Pentagon panel known as a defense acquisition board approved full-rate production of stealthy, supersonic Raptors late last month, Loren Thompson, defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, said yesterday. That board's decision will allow Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin to accelerate construction of the planes in Marietta, Ga., where about 2,200 of the plant's 7,800 workers are tied to the Raptor program.

WASHINGTON - The White House budget office has asked the Pentagon to provide independent studies of the Air Force F/A-22 stealth warplane and the Army's Comanche armed reconnaissance helicopter, triggering concerns that both programs face extensive cutbacks. In December, as the White House was putting the finishing touches on a 2005 budget that fully funded both the F/A-22 Raptor and the Comanche programs for the year - at a total of about $6 billion - the Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to the Pentagon requesting the study.

Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. has received 83 percent of its eligible bonus for a six-month period even as the Air Force was concluding that the F/A-22 fighter program would have an $876 million cost overrun, according to service records. Marvin Sambur, the Air Force's top acquisition official, said the formula for setting bonuses should be revised in light of the rising costs and delays in many service programs. Contractors should get high awards for exceptional performance and "feel the sting" if they fall short, he said.

WASHINGTON - Production of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F/A-22 jet fighter has been cut by about 15 percent to help pay for a potential development-cost overrun of as much as $1 billion, according to a U.S. Defense Department order. In his Dec. 30 directive, Pentagon Comptroller Dov S. Zakheim reduced the number of Raptors by 49, from 325 to 276. The Raptor program, which initially called for 750 aircraft, has been cut six times since 1991. The Pentagon has spent $26 billion of the $69 billion planned for the program.

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force may further cut its order for the Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F/A-22 Raptor fighter to pay for a projected $690 million cost overrun in the program, the Pentagon's top acquisition official said yesterday. The projected overrun is about 3.3 percent of the program's $20 billion development phase and surprised senior Pentagon and Air Force officials, said Edward C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. "It's $690 million of the taxpayers' funds that hit us at a point where we did not understand," Aldridge said.

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. - In 2004, Langley's Lt. Col. Art McGettrick will learn the answer to the $64 billion question that's more important than money. That's when McGettrick and a small band of other Air Force pilots find out if the F-22 Raptor is worth the billions spent on it and really can both strike lethal blows and deflect them for a decade or more to come. To learn those answers, McGettrick will push and twist and pry and sweat every possible ounce of stealth and power and agility out of the F-22.

MARIETTA, Ga. -- Laser lights swept the room, white-hatted factory workers marched and clapped in rhythm, and Lee Greenwood himself sang "Proud to be an American" yesterday, as Lockheed Martin Corp. unveiled and defended the very first F-22 fighter plane.The 90-minute spectacle of patriotism and industrial force at the Bethesda-based company's Aeronautical Systems plant outside Atlanta was a full-throated pre-emptive strike for a defense program taking fire from budget cutters in Congress.

LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. - In 2004, Langley's Lt. Col. Art McGettrick will learn the answer to the $64 billion question that's more important than money. That's when McGettrick and a small band of other Air Force pilots find out if the F-22 Raptor is worth the billions spent on it and really can both strike lethal blows and deflect them for a decade or more to come. To learn those answers, McGettrick will push and twist and pry and sweat every possible ounce of stealth and power and agility out of the F-22.

Admitting that the Air Force's F-22 Raptor already costs at least $2 billion more than expected, Pentagon officials announced a plan yesterday for reducing the price of the most expensive jet fighter in history. Their solution: Spend more money. By investing $475 million in "productivity enhancements" for the F-22, the government expects to save billions more over the life of the plane's development, said Darleen A. Druyun, principal deputy assistant Air Force secretary. Dubbed the F-22's "war on costs," the initiative will finance new machinery or other improvements for the plane's hundreds of contractors and subcontractors, with the goal of cutting their long-term expenses.