A congressional panel wants the Defense Department to think about restarting production of the F-22 stealth fighter jet, a program carried out largely at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Marietta.
F-22 assembly lines, which employed thousands of workers in Georgia and Texas, have been shut down for nearly five years.
This week a House subcommittee proposed “a comprehensive assessment and study of the costs” of getting the F-22 lines up and running.
The program stopped in late 2011 at 187 aircraft — about one-quarter of the number originally planned. One reason was the program’s massive cost in a time of budget deficits, according to Defense News.
A Rand Corp. study estimated the cost of restarting the program and building 75 more planes at $17 billion.
Spokespersons for Lockheed Martin were unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon.
The proposal to look at reviving the F-22 came from the House Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, which has been crafting part of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act.
The panel called for considering a revived program “in light of growing threats to U.S. air superiority as a result of adversaries closing the technology gap and increasing demand from allies and partners for high-performance, multi-role aircraft to meet evolving and worsening global security threats.”
Previous reports have asserted Defense Department resistance to building more F-22s. That has changed, the subcommittee wrote: “The committee also understands there has been interest within the Department of the Air Force, Department of Defense, and Congress in potentially restarting production of the F-22 aircraft.”
The proposal calls for the Secretary of the Air Force, Deborah Lee James, to report back to Congress by the start of next year.
A spokesman for Democratic U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a member of the subcommittee, said the Lithonia Democrat supports the provision.
The Marietta plant still produces the C-130J transport and has made center-wing components of the F-35 fighter, among other work.
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