U.S. Air Force wants 20 more F-22s

By Jim Wolf and Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force wants to buy at least 20 more Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft beyond the 183 currently planned, a top weapons buyer for the service said on Monday.

Big investments had already been made to wring technological and other risks out of the program and "now is the time to buy them," Ken Miller, a special assistant to Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, told the Reuters Aerospace & Defense Summit.

The additional 20 radar-evading fighters, the most advanced U.S. fighter aircraft, would be purchased in fiscal 2010 after 60 others are bought under a multiyear plan through 2009 approved by Congress, he said.

If approved by Pentagon leaders and Congress, the extra 20, to be purchased in fiscal 2010, would bring the F-22 fleet to 203. The F-22 was first envisioned in the 1980s for aerial duels against a Soviet enemy that no longer exists.

Miller left open the possibility that the Air Force might seek to buy even more F-22s as part of a further extension of the multiyear plan. If so, a goal would be to negotiate unit-cost savings beyond the 2.2 percent captured in the original, three-year procurement deal, he said.

Boosting the number of F-22s could slow the Air Force's purchases of another big-ticket warplane, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, because of scarce procurement dollars.

The F-35, due for its inaugural flight this month, is also being built by Lockheed Martin, with full production to start in 2011. It is being co-financed by eight other countries, with three different models to be used by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

Referring to possible trade-offs involving purchases of F-22s and F-35s, Miller said that the Air Force would seek to minimize the number of F-35s it buys in the early years "that will not be as capable as the ones you buy in the future."

The Air Force was trying to balance many factors to move the F-35 from a development program to production, he said. Warnings from the Pentagon's F-35 officials about the cost impact of slowing early production plans were "a big consideration," Miller said.

A Lockheed spokesman, Joseph Quimby, said the company had not been officially notified of Air Force hopes to extend its scheduled F-22 multiyear procurement by at least one year.

So far, Lockheed has delivered 84 F-22s to the Air Force. Its chief subcontractors on the program are Boeing Co. (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and United Technologies Corp.'s (UTX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Pratt & Whitney, which builds the engines.