Air Force to withhold some F-22 funds from Lockheed

By DAVE HIRSCHMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/13/06

The Air Force has decided to withhold up to $57 million to pay for
inspections of 48 F-22A Raptor fighters with flaws in a portion of their
airframes.

"Contractually, it is within their right to do so," said Joe Quimby, a
Lockheed Martin spokesman in Marietta, where the F-22s are built. "There is
no degradation of the expected service life of the F-22. There was never a
safety of flight risk associated with this problem."

Lockheed officials said in December that a subcontractor failed to properly
heat a portion of the titanium airframes on 48 jets - a flaw that could lead
to cracking. The Air Force said Wednesday it will withhold $250,000 to $1.2
million per plane.

The planes sell for about $150 million each - more than double the price of
any other U.S. fighter.

The problem comes as Congress prepares to decide whether to approve a
three-year, $7 billion purchase of 60 additional F-22s that would keep the
Marietta assembly line open through 2010.

More than 2,000 Lockheed employees work on the F-22 assembly line at the
Cobb County plant.

Richard Aboulafia, aerospace analyst at the Teal Group, called the technical
problems and cash withholding "trivial" to the $80 billion program.
"It's something Lockheed has to make good - but it won't influence the
program's future," he said. "It's not a show stopper."

More than 70 F-22s have been delivered. The Air Force plans to buy at least
183.

In a separate development, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill
last week that would allow foreign F-22 sales for the first time.
Japan is reportedly interested in buying the radar-evading, supersonic
planes to replace its retiring Vietnam-era F-4 Phantoms.

I find the last paragraph to be the most interesting.....




-K

If the F-22 and F-35 programs fall through, we could always buy SU-35's and Rafaels's on the market...LOTS of 'em for what we are paying for the stealths.

Or we could crank up the F-15 and F-16 assembly lines and make a few hundred each.

Pilots are worth more that 1.2 million each.Scrap the airframes and start over.