F22 Raptor Programme to be Axed?

As reported in the “Briefs” section of last month’s Pacific Wings, in April this year, a report from the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recommended cancelling the F22 Raptor programme, which is currently costing the US government around US$3.5 billion a year. The proposal is, perhaps, understandable with the proposed US defence budget for next year standing at US$534 billion.

There had been no definite plans announced for the acquisition of further Raptors, but the production line was to have remained open—until the Obama administration’s decision to axe the programme.

Halting production at the end of 2009 would leave a total of 187 F22s in US service, and the OMB stated that those aircraft, supplemented by the planned large numbers of Joint Strike Fighters, would be sufficient to meet the Department of Defense’s air-superiority requirements.

When the programme began, the initial requirement for F-22s was reported as 750 aircraft, but by 1995, the USAF had trimmed its plans to 339, with production expected to continue until 2013. In an editorial in the Washington Post, one week after the announcement, USAF secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz acknowledged the F22’s value in the US military arsenal but agreed with the decision to terminate the programme. It is difficult to envisage any likelihood of the programme continuing after such a statement from within the Air Force.

The Raptor’s twin Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofans each provide around 35,000 lb thrust and have +/- 20 degrees variable thrust vectoring in the pitch-plane. The highly manoeuvrable multi-capable fighter is a “stealthy” design and one of only a handful of aircraft able to maintain speeds well into the supersonic range without the use of afterburner.

Interestingly, while the JSF is proposed as suitable to fill gaps in the air-superiority role, it is not an air-superiority fighter, but a multi-role aircraft intended for Air Force, Navy and Marine service. The JSF is seen by many as primarily an air-ground attack platform, with a secondary air-to-air combat capability.

Opposition to the F-22 programme’s cancellation is coming from within the US government, as well as from the industry that stands to lose billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs. Explaining the proposed defence cuts, Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a key congressional committee his budget focuses on present conflicts. “The responsibility of this department, first and foremost, is to fight and win wars, not just to constantly prepare for them,” he is quoted as saying.