General Wants F-22 Buys Speeded Up

[unhappycamper]

General Wants F-22 Buys Speeded Up
Fort Worth Star-Telegram | January 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - Accelerating production of Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor is emerging as a possible option as the Air Force determines how to maintain its overall force structure with the grounding of older-model F-15 fighter jets, a top Air Force general says.

In an interview Jan. 11 with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Maj. Gen. Mark "Shack" Shackelford said Air Force leaders are studying the service's combat capabilities after finding structural defects in more than 40 percent of the service's 441 F-15s.

One possible course, he said, will be "should we or could we accelerate the rate at which we buy F-22s." He added, however, that it is "too early to speculate" on the ultimate decision.

Shackelford, who oversees the acquisition of fighters and bombers, said the discussion on the F-15 is unrelated to a separate high-profile push to extend Raptor production beyond its scheduled termination in 2011. But he acknowledged a "potential fallout effect" resulting from problems with older F-15s, which the F-22 is being built to replace.

An internal debate has raged for months over the Defense Department's plan to cease F-22 production in 2011 after a final purchase of 20 fighters. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, a former Fort Worth aerospace executive, favors that plan, but Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley, a Grand Prairie native, is leading his service's push to keep the assembly line open.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,159906,00.html



uhc comment: Read more on the F-22 - search for the term '330,000.000' in this forum.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. 330,000,000 - the number of moving parts in that beast?

or the potential failure points because of the unbelievable complexity?

[unhappycamper]

2. Buckos.

Of course, they need to send them to the shop for corrosion repairs.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. wasn't the f-22 competitor a cheaper,

more simple, and more robust design, with much fewer moving parts that could break?

except that the military-industrial complex pretty much went for glitz instead?