Air Force Leaders Vow To Fight For Endangered Raptor

Defense Daily 02/22/05
author: Sharon Weinberger

ORLANDO, Fla.--With the Air Force's premiere air superiority fighter under threat, service leaders here made an impassioned case to restore funding cut from the Pentagon's budget projections.

The Pentagon in this year's spending request cut long-term procurement plans for the Lockheed Martin [LMT] F/A-22 Raptor, ending production at 179 aircraft in fiscal year 2009, three years ahead of schedule. But speaking last week at the Air Force Association's annual air warfare symposium here, the service's senior civilian and military leaders promised to fight to restore those numbers as part of the upcoming review of the military's force strategy and posture.

The F/A-22 will be "front and center in the Quadrennial Defense Review," promised Peter Teets, the acting secretary of the Air Force. Teets said that he and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper recently met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to discuss the issue.

The defense secretary "agreed there is no question we need the F/A-22," Teets said. "The question revolves around how many."

Teets said the Air Force is now examining how much it would cost to add some of the aircraft back into the Pentagon's future years defense program.

The Air Force has a stated requirement for 381 Raptors. That number could change as part of the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which is designed to review comprehensively all of the services' requirements, but Air Force officials believe the final number will be substantially higher than the 179 now in the budget.

One factor working in the service's favor is a recent change to the QDR's terms of reference, a document critical to the review process. According to Teets, Rumsfeld agreed to modify the terms of reference and "the service will now have a very active role in the review."

Previously, senior Pentagon officials have said that Rumsfeld would drive the QDR, with substantially diminished service participation. That was expected to be bad news for the services, which have traditionally fought against any proposed cuts.

The decision to cut the F/A-22 was made late last year as part of a Pentagon budget drill that gutted a number of big-ticket weapons. Critics of the F/A-22 have questioned the need for the costly stealth aircraft, particularly given across-the-board budget cuts and the current emphasis on urban operations and counter-insurgency.

But Jumper argued that, current operations notwithstanding, there is still a need for air superiority, particularly against emerging threats. "We have a case to make, and we intend to make it," he said.

In the end, "it's the secretary of defense that has to make the choice," Jumper said. "We're going to lay the argument out and present the facts. But in the end, the choice is not the choice of the United States Air Force."