F-22: Ruptured Raptor
By Andrew Rhys Thompson for ISN
In early April US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates presented his plans to end funding for the F-22 program and to curtail production of the stealth fighter at 187 units. Gates told the assembled media in a Pentagon briefing of the decision: "For me, it was not a close call. … The military advice that I got was that there is no military requirement for numbers of F-22s beyond the 187." Despite this, the announcement immediately caused an uproar on Capitol Hill as members of Congress whose home states are directly tied into the production of the F-22 predictably scrambled to find ways to ignore the directive and continue funding of the costly jets.
In mid June, the House Armed Services Committee inserted $368.8 million into the fiscal year 2011 defense budget as a down payment for 12 additional F-22s. This was followed by the Senate Armed Services Committee adding $1.75 billion to the fiscal year 2010 defense budget for 7 new F-22s, under the initiative of Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia).
These congressional maneuvers however did not go down well with the current administration, and in July US President Barack Obama reiterated an outright threat to veto any global defense budget that would still include funding for more F-22s. This compelling veto threat by the president as well as intense behind the scenes lobbying by the White House ultimately helped bring most members of Congress back in line. In his efforts to scuttle all F-22 funding beyond 187 units, Obama was closely supported by Carl Levin (D-Michigan), as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and even by John McCain (R-Arizona), who proved to live up to his maverick reputation. On 21 July the Senate complied with the president’s pressure and voted to strip all F-22 funding from the proposed defense budget. The House of Representatives followed suit a few days later and on 30 July also agreed to abide by the cap of 187 jets.
While the congressional confrontation with the White House over the stealth fighter did constitute a bit more than just a storm in a water bottle, it can be seen entirely within the context of old-school, pork barrel politics. Not so much the unparalleled, 5th generation fighter qualities of the F-22 were on the mind of most senators and representatives, but simply the economic impact and the numerous jobs the program represented to their home state constituencies.
Despite this, Lockheed Martin, the primary contractor for the F-22, refrained from aggressive lobbying to keep the program alive, as the Pentagon had already outlined to the company that the conclusion of the F-22 program would be compensated with a greater emphasis on and additional orders for the more versatile and less expensive F-35. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the home base of Lockheed Martin, Gates was even publicly applauded in newspaper editorials for his fiscal frugality and wise budget management in shifting resources away from the Cold War-inspired F-22.
A paper Raptor
Although the F-22 Raptor is the most advanced aircraft in the arsenal of the United States Air Force (USAF) and a technological marvel that has no equal rival world-wide, it is also built on a 1980s blueprint and as such has little practical value for the post-Cold War conflicts and asymmetric threats that the US has increasingly been confronted with. The first-strike, air superiority and stealth features of the F-22 were designed to achieve a decisive tactical advantage over a sophisticated enemy in a conventional conflict. Yet with no more Soviet MiGs to potentially dogfight, the F-22 has flown zero combat missions since entering service in 2005. The aircraft has not been used in either Iraq or Afghanistan, as it is not designed to fly low and slow for ground attack purposes.
On top of that, the aircraft, and especially its delicate radar absorbing metallic skin have proven to be extraordinarily high-maintenance. Reports have suggested that for every hour of flight, the F-22 requires about 34 hours of ground maintenance. This in turn has lead to the cost of one hour of operation soaring to roughly $44,000. All these aspects have undoubtedly contributed to the F-22 being a powerfully prestigious yet also somewhat futile flagship.
As of May 2009, 141 units have been built and production of the remaining 46 units to reach the final total of 187 will keep the assembly lines running until 2011. In any other country, the sheer quantity of 187 examples of only one aircraft type would be considered an amazingly high number and it is more than many NATO members have outright in their combined inventories of both fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters, yet for many US politicians the final figure of 187 F-22s seems small compared to the 648 jets that were originally envisioned in 1992.
To date the F-22 program has cost the United States about $65 billion, with the research, development and testing component coming in around $28 billion. Correspondingly astronomical has been the Raptor’s unit price tag, at about $351 million per fighter.
Man vs machine
While some members of Congress have suggested that some of these high investments should be buffered by offering scaled-down versions of the F-22 for sale to interested foreign buyers and overseas allies, US federal law prohibits any exports of the Raptor, as too much of the associated technology is still considered classified and simply too sensitive for sharing. Even though Australia, Japan and Israel have all expressed a direct interest in acquiring F-22s, any such process would require Congress to lift the export restrictions, which seems unlikely at this time. Instead, these countries are likely to take delivery of the less expensive and more multi-operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The F-22 is likely to serve the US Air Force well into the 2030s and could eventually and potentially be succeeded by a 6th generation air superiority fighter that will already be unmanned. As Travis Sharp, a military policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, DC told ISN Security Watch: “Some people refer to the F-35 as the last manned fighter the United States will ever build.
“The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has given the Air Force a new range of options, but I wonder about the cultural shift that will be required for the Air Force to transition to an increasingly automated force structure. The white-scarf fighter jock ethos is alive and well within the USAF, and I don’t think it will disappear simply because UAVs are popular at the moment.
In mid June, the House Armed Services Committee inserted $368.8 million into the fiscal year 2011 defense budget as a down payment for 12 additional F-22s. This was followed by the Senate Armed Services Committee adding $1.75 billion to the fiscal year 2010 defense budget for 7 new F-22s, under the initiative of Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia).
These congressional maneuvers however did not go down well with the current administration, and in July US President Barack Obama reiterated an outright threat to veto any global defense budget that would still include funding for more F-22s. This compelling veto threat by the president as well as intense behind the scenes lobbying by the White House ultimately helped bring most members of Congress back in line. In his efforts to scuttle all F-22 funding beyond 187 units, Obama was closely supported by Carl Levin (D-Michigan), as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and even by John McCain (R-Arizona), who proved to live up to his maverick reputation. On 21 July the Senate complied with the president’s pressure and voted to strip all F-22 funding from the proposed defense budget. The House of Representatives followed suit a few days later and on 30 July also agreed to abide by the cap of 187 jets.
While the congressional confrontation with the White House over the stealth fighter did constitute a bit more than just a storm in a water bottle, it can be seen entirely within the context of old-school, pork barrel politics. Not so much the unparalleled, 5th generation fighter qualities of the F-22 were on the mind of most senators and representatives, but simply the economic impact and the numerous jobs the program represented to their home state constituencies.
Despite this, Lockheed Martin, the primary contractor for the F-22, refrained from aggressive lobbying to keep the program alive, as the Pentagon had already outlined to the company that the conclusion of the F-22 program would be compensated with a greater emphasis on and additional orders for the more versatile and less expensive F-35. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the home base of Lockheed Martin, Gates was even publicly applauded in newspaper editorials for his fiscal frugality and wise budget management in shifting resources away from the Cold War-inspired F-22.
A paper Raptor
Although the F-22 Raptor is the most advanced aircraft in the arsenal of the United States Air Force (USAF) and a technological marvel that has no equal rival world-wide, it is also built on a 1980s blueprint and as such has little practical value for the post-Cold War conflicts and asymmetric threats that the US has increasingly been confronted with. The first-strike, air superiority and stealth features of the F-22 were designed to achieve a decisive tactical advantage over a sophisticated enemy in a conventional conflict. Yet with no more Soviet MiGs to potentially dogfight, the F-22 has flown zero combat missions since entering service in 2005. The aircraft has not been used in either Iraq or Afghanistan, as it is not designed to fly low and slow for ground attack purposes.
On top of that, the aircraft, and especially its delicate radar absorbing metallic skin have proven to be extraordinarily high-maintenance. Reports have suggested that for every hour of flight, the F-22 requires about 34 hours of ground maintenance. This in turn has lead to the cost of one hour of operation soaring to roughly $44,000. All these aspects have undoubtedly contributed to the F-22 being a powerfully prestigious yet also somewhat futile flagship.
As of May 2009, 141 units have been built and production of the remaining 46 units to reach the final total of 187 will keep the assembly lines running until 2011. In any other country, the sheer quantity of 187 examples of only one aircraft type would be considered an amazingly high number and it is more than many NATO members have outright in their combined inventories of both fixed-wing airplanes and helicopters, yet for many US politicians the final figure of 187 F-22s seems small compared to the 648 jets that were originally envisioned in 1992.
To date the F-22 program has cost the United States about $65 billion, with the research, development and testing component coming in around $28 billion. Correspondingly astronomical has been the Raptor’s unit price tag, at about $351 million per fighter.
Man vs machine
While some members of Congress have suggested that some of these high investments should be buffered by offering scaled-down versions of the F-22 for sale to interested foreign buyers and overseas allies, US federal law prohibits any exports of the Raptor, as too much of the associated technology is still considered classified and simply too sensitive for sharing. Even though Australia, Japan and Israel have all expressed a direct interest in acquiring F-22s, any such process would require Congress to lift the export restrictions, which seems unlikely at this time. Instead, these countries are likely to take delivery of the less expensive and more multi-operational F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The F-22 is likely to serve the US Air Force well into the 2030s and could eventually and potentially be succeeded by a 6th generation air superiority fighter that will already be unmanned. As Travis Sharp, a military policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, DC told ISN Security Watch: “Some people refer to the F-35 as the last manned fighter the United States will ever build.
“The development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has given the Air Force a new range of options, but I wonder about the cultural shift that will be required for the Air Force to transition to an increasingly automated force structure. The white-scarf fighter jock ethos is alive and well within the USAF, and I don’t think it will disappear simply because UAVs are popular at the moment.