$237 Million and Counting: Pentagon Approves Low-Rate Production of F-22
Aug 17, 2001
17 August 2001
Contact: Dan Koslofsky - 202.543.4100 ×115 Luke Warren - 202.546.0795 ×127
The Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) approved initial low rate production of the Air Force’s controversial F-22 tactical aircraft program Wednesday, while increasing the production cost cap $6 billion, to $45 billion. The $70 billion program has come under fire recently after the Air Force reported a $9 billion growth in development costs and cracks were found in the tails of many prototype F-22s. Due to the cost overruns, the DAB recommended reducing the Air Force’s total purchase of F-22s, intended to replace the F-15 fighter jet, from 331 to 295.
“The F-22 is not worth $237 million a copy, especially when its predecessor, the F-15, can be purchased for $50 million a piece,” argued Dan Koslofsky, House lobbyist for the arms control organization Council for a Livable World, “Moreover, the F-15 will still be the most advanced air superiority fighter in the world for decades. The F-22 is simply unneeded.”
Additionally, the Council for a Livable World finds the timing of this decision specious. It comes seven weeks before the Quadrennial Defense Review is due, which sets U.S. military strategy for the next four years. Given the program’s history of problems, its rising cost, and questionable utility, the DAB should have postponed a decision until after the nation’s defense strategy is defined.
“Once a weapon formally enters production, it almost never gets canceled, and both the Air Force and Lockheed-Martin knew that. This is an underhanded effort to guarantee that this troubled, overly expensive, Cold-War relic is built. Hopefully Congress or the QDR will cancel the program,” stated Luke Warren, the Council’s media director and tac-air expert.
At $237 million per copy, one F-22 costs more than the entire defense budgets of over 75 nations including: Luxembourg, Armenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bolivia, Cameroon and Uganda.
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