Facing further cost overruns, the US Air Force is attempting to slow the ramp-up of Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 production to free up more money for producibility improvements.
The move would delay by 12 months the start of full rate production of 36 aircraft a year. It would also "free up a couple of hundred million dollars" for upfront investment in design changes to reduce production costs, says F-22 system programme office director Gen Jay Jabour.
The USAF estimates production of the planned 339 F-22s is $2 billion over the cost cap imposed by Congress. Based on the average 18:1 return on investment achieved with other F-22 producibility improvements, Jabour believes the money released by rephasing low rate initial production (LRIP) will be enough to bring the programme in under the cost cap.
The programme is also an estimated $200 million over the development cost cap, so the USAF is proposing to delay certain tasks. These include integrating the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cuing System (JHMCS) and, possibly, the AIM-9X air-to-air missile.
"There is stuff we can take out and still deliver an ORD [operational requirements document] threshold aircraft," says Jabour. "They will get the JHMCS after IOC [initial operating capability], but in time for most aircraft. We're trying to keep in AIM-9X, but we're not sure if we can."
The F-22 must win approval to enter production at a Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) meeting scheduled for 3 January. The meeting was postponed from 24 December to give the USAF/contractor team more time to meet the criteria set for DAB approval.
As 2000 drew to a close, the team had five criteria still to meet, including the critical first flight of an F-22 with Block 3.0 avionics software. Weather at Lockheed Martin's Marietta, Georgia, plant prevented a first flight of the aircraft, 4005, before Christmas, but Jabour believed it would fly before the end of the year.
Efforts to meet two other DAB criteria were also being hindered by bad weather: the first flight of aircraft 4006 and initial radar cross-section (RCS) testing with aircraft 4004. Jabour believed flying 4006 "could slip into early 2001", while plans to overfly an RCS measurement range while ferrying 4004 from Marietta to the USAF flight test centre at Edwards AFB, California, might also slip.
The team was fairly confident of meeting the other DAB criteria by year end: completing static tests and beginning fatigue tests.
Source: Flight International
