We've had a lot of coverage here of the problems with the Air Force's F-15 fleet, which has left has many as 40 percent of the service's front line fighters permanently grounded. In light of these problems, the Air Force is pushing for more funding for F-22, a program which is nearing the end of its production and will be shut down unless new orders are placed. The Fort-Worth Star-Telegram reports:
Maj. Gen. Jeff Riemer, program executive officer for the F-22 who also participated in the interview, said the Air Force has several cost scenarios for extending Raptor production. The current production rate of 20 a year means that building 198 more aircraft would cost about $40 billion and keep the production line open until 2019. But boosting production to 32 annually, he said, would be more efficient, reducing the cost to about $35 billion, and production would last until 2016.
I'm not particularly good at math, but I believe that works out to roughly $200 million per aircraft at 20 a year and roughly $180 million per aircraft at 40 a year. Which is a lot more money than the Air Force was talking about prior to the problems with F-15. In an article for Air Force Print News last year, Maj. Gen. Richard B.H. Lewis, Air Force executive officer for the F-22 program, offered a much lower figure:
But the reality is, if the Air Force wanted to buy just one more jet, it would cost the taxpayer less than half that amount. The current cost for a single copy of an F-22 stands at about $137 million. And that number has dropped by 23 percent since Lot 3 procurement, General Lewis said. "The cost of the airplane is going down," he said. "And the next 100 aircraft, if I am allowed to buy another 100 aircraft ... the average fly-away cost would be $116 million per airplane."
How did the cost go up $80 million per aircraft--50 percent--in just one year? I've been as big a proponent of extending F-22 as anyone, but at $200 million each, the F-22 would have to have more value to the Air Force than roughly 3.3 Joint Strike Fighters. Does anyone think the F-22 is worth that much?