Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC
The US Air Force has identified additional cost savings worth $200 million from the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor development programme. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney have won contracts from the US Air Force to build six F-22 Raptor production-representative test vehicles (PRTVs) (Flight International, 22 December 1999-3 January).
The contracts are worth $1.3 billion to the airframers and $180 million to P&W, which is to deliver 12 F119 engines. Long-lead funding - worth around $277 million - for 10 low rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 1 aircraft has also been approved ahead of an LRIP go-ahead meeting set for next December.
Having identified additional cost savings on the F-22 programme, the USAF remains confident that it can complete development and production of the stealthy air-superiority fighter within Congressionally mandated funding caps.
Darleen Druyun, Department of Defense principal deputy assistant for USAF acquisition and management, revealed the savings while defending the programme before Congress in December. Earlier last year there was a move in Congress to cut funding for F-22 production. A compromise saved most of the budget, but delayed a production decision by a year.
In 1998, Congress capped spending on the F-22 at $18.9 billion for development and $39.8 billion for production. In March, the USAF acknowledged potential cost growth that could take development up to $660 million over budget, but outlined cuts to keep spending within the cap. Druyun says another $200 million in savings has been identified. The USAF has a total of $860 million of offsets "to handle the worst-case shortfall that we predicted in March," she told Congress.
In addition, Druyun says production cost reduction initiatives identified by Lockheed Martin/ Boeing and engine supplier Pratt & Whitney total $16.9 billion, compared with earlier estimates of $10 billion. Druyun told Congress that the USAF expects the contractor team to meet delivery schedules.
Source: Flight International
