By Emelie Rutherford
An Air Force official told Senate authorizers yesterday that a decision on whether to keep open the F-22 Raptor production line needs to be made by November, saying adding four of the fighter jets to a supplemental spending bill does little for the debate.
The service would need $595.6 million in fiscal year 2009 for advance procurement of 24 F-22s to keep the production line going and plan for an additional F-22A lot, Lt. Gen. Donald Hoffman, military deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, said in a statement. While it is expected that money to buy four additional F-22s will be in a FY ’09 war supplemental bill, Hoffman told the Senate Armed Services Airland subcommittee yesterday that those four aircraft would only keep the production line open for a short period of time.
With a new administration coming in, he said a decision on extending the line really needs to be made by November, in order to ensure subvendors stay on board. The four added F-22s would be dovetailed at the end of the aircraft’s Lot 9, while the $595.6 million for advance-procurement would go toward an additional lot, his written statement says.
Adding the four F-22s in a supplemental “adds four aircraft to the fleet, it adds very little to the debate of keeping vendors open,” Hoffman said. “At current production rate .. that’d be less than a few months of production.”
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee in February that he wants to let the next administration decide whether to keep open the F-22 production line. Yet Hoffman told the Airland subcommittee yesterday that committing to advance procurement funds this year would not bind the next administration to maintaining the line.
If a monetary commitment is not made by November, subvendors will leave the effort, Hoffman said.
“To go back an recapture them will become more expensive and every month after that costs will go up,” he said.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s chairman, asked Hoffman if he “can say with some certainly that waiting until [calendar year] ’09 to make the advance- procurement decision would cost more money.” The general replied: “Yes, sir…we do not have the authorization there to keep the subvendors alive.”
Hoffman also answered in the affirmative when Lieberman asked if Gates’ position on giving the next administration the option on closing the F-22 line to mean action can be taken to keep the line open before the changing of leadership, and the future administration “can stop the presses if they choose.”
“Yes, sir, depending on when the next administration would form as a team to be able to get that decision ..and Congress as well,” Hoffman said.
The Air Force’s FY ’09 budget request includes no money for F-22s. If none is added, the buy will stand and 183 Raptors and the last aircraft of Lot 9 will be delivered in December 2011.
While some Air Force officials have said they want 381 F-22s, they have sought to say publicly that they agree with the Pentagon’s stance that only 183 Raptors are needed.
The service’s unfunded requirements list for FY ’09 requests $600 million to buy four additional aircraft.