Lawmakers Back F-22 Production Extension

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Fort Worth Star Telegram
December 11, 2007 By Dave Montgomery, Star-Telegram Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Congressional supporters of Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor are unleashing a high-profile offensive to keep the twin-engine warplane rolling off the assembly line beyond the Pentagon's targeted production cutoff early in the next decade.
Several dozen lawmakers in the House and Senate have signed a letter urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to allow continued F-22 production, saying it would be "ill-advised and premature" to phase out the program within the next three years.
The Defense Department plans to cease production of the aircraft in 2011 after completing a final purchase of 60 F-22s under a multiyear purchasing plan approved in a previous session of Congress. The Air Force's F-22 fleet would be capped at 183 aircraft, roughly half the number that Air Force officials say is needed to maintain U.S. air superiority.
Shutting down the program would affect major aircraft-assembly plants in three cities and more than 1,000 suppliers in 44 states. More than 1,800 Lockheed workers in Fort Worth build the center fuselage, the largest section, and Boeing workers in Seattle construct the tail and rear section.
The fighter is assembled at a Lockheed plant in Marietta, Ga., which also builds the forward fuselage.
Consequently, the aircraft has immense support in Congress, where lawmakers from both parties have aligned themselves with the Air Force's efforts to purchase no fewer than 381 aircraft. Aides said that well over 50 lawmakers have signed the letter to Gates, with more signatures expected before it goes to the defense secretary this week.
"I'm hopeful that the response will be positive," said Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, whose district includes the Fort Worth plant. "I think ensuring our air superiority is critical, and that's what we're trying to have happen."
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the warplane is needed as "rival nations develop more advanced fighter aircraft." Other lawmakers calling for continued production include Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and the four Republicans representing Tarrant County: Granger, Joe Barton of Arlington, Michael Burgess of Lewisville and Kenny Marchant of Coppell.
Congress recently approved $3.58 billion for the final block of F-22s in a defense budget for the 2008 fiscal year that ends in September. Pentagon officials led by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, a former Fort Worth aerospace executive, are in the final stages of drafting a 2009 budget request that will go to Congress in February.
In their request to Gates, lawmakers are asking for "sufficient funds" -- believed to be about $550 million -- to allow the manufacturers to buy parts for an additional lot of planes beyond the contract. Without the advance purchases, the F-22 supply base will "progressively shut down"' beginning in late 2008, said Rob Fuller, Lockheed Martin's F-22 spokesman.
 
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