Support grows for building more Raptors

The F-22 Raptor could continue to roll off the assembly line in Marietta if support continues to grow in Congress for more of the fighter jets.

The House Armed Services Committee authorized $369 million earlier this week to pay for the initial production of another dozen of the stealth fighters.

Congress would likely support another 20 planes, House Armed Services Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces chairman Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has proposed halting the program at 187 planes to focus on other priorities, effectively killing the program. That would mean F-22 production would stop in 2011.

The Air Force has said it needs a minimum of 243 Raptors to maintain global air superiority.

“What we want to see is that we keep this line open,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said Thursday in a phone interview. He sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which will debate defense authorization spending next week.

Ideally, Chambliss would like to see orders for about 250 Raptors, in keeping with the Air Force’s minimum request.

Even if Congress authorizes the money this summer, it will still have to go back and actually appropriate funds for another dozen or 20 planes later this year. If that happens, the money would keep the assembly line open about another year, said Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute think tank.

The Air Force plans to replace the Cold War-era F-15 with the F-22, which is the nation’s top-of-the-line fighter, Thompson said. One Raptor costs $140 million.

“It’s impossible to shoot down an F-22, unless it’s sitting right in front of you,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t generate any radar, or return any heat. There’s nothing to track.”

“I am hopeful that the F-22 funding makes it through the process, which would be good for both our economy and protecting our country,” Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens said in a statement.

Sam Grizzle, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, declined to comment on the possibility of more money for the F-22.

Regardless of the fate of the Raptor, Lockheed Martin will make a similar plane for the Department of Defense.

The Air Force plans to replace the F-16 with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is based on the F-22 design. It’s stealthy, but not as capable as the F-22, Thompson said. It’s also cheaper, costing about $60 million to $70 million per plane, he said.