Pentagon seeks to buy more F-22 fighter jets

The Pentagon plans to buy additional F-22 Raptor fighter jets from Lockheed Martin in fiscal 2009, a move that would not only augment the Air Force's fighter fleet but also would delay production-line closures expected to begin next year.

In a Monday letter to lawmakers, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said the Pentagon will request money for more F-22s in the military's fiscal 2009 war spending request to replace other aircraft lost in "war-related" operations. The letter did not specify an exact number of aircraft, but a Pentagon official said today that the military would request money for four more F-22s.

England cautioned that the additional money for the program does not signal a significant revision of the Pentagon's plans to buy only 183 Raptors -- nearly 200 fewer than the 381 the Air Force would like to buy. The Defense Department's current plans for the F-22 program, England wrote, are sufficient to deal with the military's strategic needs.

"The department has examined the mix of tactical aviation forces and capabilities needed to execute the national military strategy," England wrote. "The evaluation shows that investing in [fifth] generation fighters for all three services by buying the more modern F-35 [Joint Strike Fighter] provides more effective capability to the joint force commander than concentrating investments in a single service by buying more F-22s."

Under the department's longstanding plans for the F-22, the last fighter would be assembled at Lockheed Martin's plant in Marietta, Ga., in 2011. But many second- and third-tier subcontractors, which supply parts years before the final assembly of the planes, would begin to shut down their production lines next year. Any additional aircraft would delay -- albeit briefly -- the production-line closures.

With more than 1,000 suppliers in 44 states, the F-22 has strong support on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers already have begun expressing concerns about ending production of the fighter jet. Twenty-eight senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Gates last month urging the Pentagon to buy more of the fighter jets.