re: #549 screaming_eagle

The F-22 has been cut. I don’t have a link though.

Not dead yet…

Just a few weeks before a congressional deadline, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters Tuesday that he soon will ask Defense Secretary Robert Gates for more F-22 Raptors.

Schwartz wouldn’t say how many of the stealthy fighters he will request, only that the total will be “less than the 381” the Air Force has said it needed since 2002.

Congress, which has approved only 187 Raptors, set a deadline of March 1 for President Barack Obama’s administration to decide whether to purchase more.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said in December that he and Schwartz had talked about buying 60 more F-22s, which would bring the total to 243.

Schwartz said he “wouldn’t dispute Admiral Mullen’s characterization … but as I indicated, I have yet to discuss this with the secretary of defense, and I think it would be appropriate that I share my military advice with him first before doing so publicly.”

Loren Thompson of the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute said he took Schwartz’s comments as confirmation the chief of staff will ask for 60.

F-22s, which cost about $150 million apiece, have been criticized for not contributing to the irregular wars the U.S. faces in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Air Force generals have said 187 F-22s are not enough, especially considering that only 100 could be available for combat at one time because of maintenance rates.