Report: Pentagon needs to justify new fighter jet

Report: Pentagon needs to justify new fighter jet

(EXCERPT), by John J. Lumpkin ASSOCIATED PRESS

3:06 p.m. March 15, 2004

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon needs to make a case to keep the F/A-22
fighter program in the face of vastly increased costs and technical
problems, congressional investigators say.

The General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress, said in a report
that the military can now afford only 218 of the planes within a $36.8
billion spending cap. The Air Force originally planned to buy 750 but
has since reduced the number to 277 – which it still says it can
afford once it makes the program more efficient.

The F/A-22 Raptor, intended primarily as a stealthy replacement for
the F-15 Eagle, was built to shoot down other planes. Unlike its
predecessor, the F/A-22 can fly at supersonic speeds for long ranges.

The plane was conceived 18 years ago, at the end of the Cold...

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Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com