Avionics snags add to reliability problems, while GAO warns of cost overruns ahead for troubled fighter programme
The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F/A-22 Raptor was haunted last week by warnings of another potential schedule delay and a Congressional watchdog agency's claims that more cost overruns lie ahead for the $71 billion programme. A decision to go ahead with the next phase of testing was set for 22 March, but US Air Force Secretary James Roche is cautioning that the fighter might not be ready.
Lockheed Martin is still working to validate new test data that indicates the Raptor's avionics software can sustain the required performance for 5h mean time between instability events, but the Defense Acquisition Board could nonetheless delay the start of initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). Roche says avionics software is only one of the reliability headaches that cut the number of flights achieved during the first phase of the F/A-22's operational testing, begun five months ago.
Extended turnaround times had prompted air force officials to consider adding a second spare F/A-22 to serve as a back-up to sustain four-ship operational test flights. Previous delays already had compressed the IOT&E schedule to about four months, requiring fairly quick turnaround times for flights. In a new report released on 15 March, the US General Accounting Office (GAO), which is the investigative arm of US Congress, says any new IOT&E schedule delays could "jeopardise the full-rate production decision in December 2004".
The GAO's auditors estimate that the Raptor has already consumed $40 billion in development funds. They challenge the air force to develop a new business case to justify a remaining investment of $31-40 billion more over the next 15 years.
The air force's decision in 2002 to broaden the F/A-22's air-to-ground capabilities will require the service to spend an extra $11.7 billion in developing the system. Only $3.5 billion of this excess has been budgeted by the air force through to fiscal year 2009.
The GAO report also discloses that the USAF is being forced to replace a primary microprocessor powering the F/A-22's avionics suite. The manufacturer, Intel, informed the air force last year that it is phasing out the 32-bit, 25MHz i960MXchip due to obsolescence. The service was already aware that the chip lacked the power to support the F/A-22's planned air-to-ground enhancements beyond 2013, but it may now need to revamp the aircraft's computer architecture and avionics processors to support the last 60-120 Raptors produced after 2013. It is also considering a retrofit programme for the first 155 F/A-22s that are to be delivered with the older microprocessors.
"This mass changeover of the F/A-22 computer architecture and avionics processor will be a time-consuming and costly effort and will likely create additional programme risks," says the GAO report. Non-recurring development costs alone could exceed $300 million, it says.
STEPHEN TRIMBLE / WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
