Rense.com

 
Raptor Shows Extraordinary
Ability Amid Cost Overruns
11-9-2

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (UPI) -- While the Air Force gets to the bottom of a potential $690 million cost overrun for the F/A-22 Raptor program, the cutting-edge fighter has apparently been meeting expectations in the skies over California.
 
Lockheed-Martin announced Friday that the high-priced warplane that is seen as the United States' frontline fighter of the future passed a developmental milestone this week when it destroyed a target drone while both were flying at supersonic speeds.
 
"This test marked the first time a Raptor, flying at supersonic speeds, has been used to detect, track and launch a radar-guided missile against an aerial target also traveling faster than the speed of sound," said Lockheed Martin's F/A-22 Avionics Systems Manager Tony Keith.
 
Air Force Major James Dutton did the honors on Tuesday when he destroyed an oncoming drone with a medium-range missile while streaking 35,000 feet above the Pacific Ocean at around 900 miles per hour, or 1.5 times the speed of sound.
 
Dutton's aircraft, one of seven Raptors undergoing regular test flights from isolated Edwards Air Force Base in the California high desert, locked on to the approaching target drone, which was flying 15,000 feet higher and approaching on a head-on course.
 
"This 'nose-to-nose, 12 o'clock-high look-up' shot would be extremely difficult for today's fighters because of the small size and extremely quick closure rates of the target drone and intercept aircraft," Keith said in a press release. "The F/A-22's avionics acquired the target at a distance sufficient to allow the pilot ample time to make a successful intercept."
 
The flight satisfied one of the goals set by the Pentagon as the F/A-22 is prepared to become the United States' "air dominance" fighter beginning in 2005. Built with a stealth fuselage design, the Raptor is designed to detect and lock on to enemy aircraft at great distances, giving the American pilot the chance to the take the crucial first shot in an impending dogfight.
 
"This test effectively and successfully demonstrated the 'first-look, first-shoot, first- kill' capability of the F/A-22's advanced integrated avionics," Keith crowed.
 
All is not well within the Raptor program, however, as the plane's price tag appeared about to grow fatter with revelations by the Air Force on Thursday that the F/A-22 program faced cost overruns of some $690 million. At an estimated cost of $99 million each, the plane is already considered the most expensive ever built, and Congress has put a $45 billion budget cap on the program.
 
The Air Force Friday put together a panel of financial and technical experts to look into the overruns that Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper said were apparently the result of manufacturing issues and not the plane's advanced technology.
 
"The F/A-22 is essential to America's security in the 21st century, and we will get to the bottom of this issue," Jumper said in a statement, adding that the program remained on schedule.
 
Defense Department officials refused to comment on whether the cost report might lead to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld order the program scaled back or even canceled, saying they would wait until the panel reported back later this month.
 
"We don't know the circumstances of what happened yet," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters Friday. "I think he was pleased that (UnderSecretary of Defense) Pete Aldridge jumped on top of it right away...and that they're going to get to the bottom of it."
 
Copyright © 2002 United Press International





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