EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — Under the blistering desert sun, in a hangar surrounded by barbed-wire-topped fences and electronic security gates, dozens of mechanics bustle around an F-22 Raptor, the most deadly fighter ever built.
The Air Force says the F-22 can do things no fighter has ever done--flying faster and farther than any rival, and all with gymnastic maneuverability. But right now, the aircraft's fight isn't in the skies over Bosnia or in a dogfight with Iraqi MIGs--it is in the corridors of the Pentagon.
On Tuesday, exactly a decade after Lockheed Martin Co. won the F-22 contract, a Pentagon panel is scheduled to review the jet's test performance and consider whether to launch a limited initial production of what is expected to be the most expensive fighter ever. If the matter is not approved, production will be delayed at least another year, when officials will take up the issue again.
The oft-delayed decision will come as critics have stepped up efforts to curtail the $58-billion program, saying the plane is too expensive and is no longer needed in the post-Cold War era.
Critics want the Air Force to cut F-22 purchases and instead buy newer models of the F-15, saying it would be less expensive. They note that the F-15 never lost a battle in more than 100 engagements. F-15s downed four MIG-29 fighters during the Balkan conflict and 33 of the 35 Iraqi aircraft shot down during Operation Desert Storm.
Each F-22 is expected to cost $84 million, but adding in research and development, maintenance, facilities and related support expenses, that figure swells to about $173 million, federal officials say.
"The F-22 is a continuation of the flawed weapons-buying system that allows overpriced, under-tested weapons to dominate our military policy," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based government watchdog group. "As long as the Pentagon continues this trend, defense contractors will benefit at the expense of the military and taxpayers."
The Air Force and its supporters say production of the Raptor is essential if the U.S. is to maintain its military dominance of the skies. The Air Force wants 339 F-22s to replace the venerable F-15, an air-to-air fighter that was developed in the late 1960s.
