"I wouldn't want to be the one that says we are not going to need this airplane," said Sen. Bob Bennett after returning Monday from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, home of what soon will be the first operational Raptor wing.
President Bush's budget request for the Pentagon calls for reducing future purchases of the $130 million-per-plane jets from the current planned level of 268 to 179, terminating the contract early in 2008. Conceived in the 1970s to counter the air-to-air threat of the former Soviet Union, some analysts say the Raptor is not suited to the type of close-in, ground-support warfare that probably will characterize future threats.
But rising maintenance costs and operational limitations of the current fleet of F-15 fighters dictate an investment in the new stealth fighter, said Sen. Orrin Hatch.
"The F-15C is over 25 years old and we're finding that if we don't watch out, we won't keep up with planes from Russia, France, India and other countries," said Hatch, who joined Bennett and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, on the Air Force tour. "The F/A-22 will continue to give us the air superiority we've had for the past 50 years and I'm confident most members of Congress will choose to keep America the strongest."
Hatch predicted Congress would restore the program to not only the current projected fleet of 268 planes, but also might consider boosting production numbers.
"What we get from the Air Force is they will require 381 of these planes to meet the national security requirements of our nation, and I can see where that's essential," he said.
Several Utah companies are subcontracted by Lockheed Martin to build components for the jet, including Northrop Grumman in Salt Lake City, which makes the F/A-22's navigational systems, and ATK Composites, which builds fuselage parts from radar-evading material.
Hatch said the Raptor pumps about $300 million annually into Utah's economy.
As a member of the Senate committee that holds the purse strings to federal agencies, Bennett will likely have the most influence of any Utah lawmaker over the Raptor's funding future.
"The president's budget calls for full funding in 2006 and 2007 and that buys us some time to examine the threat assessment in the future," he said.
"The real question is what kind of Air Force do we want 25 to 30 years from now and when we look at the security of the nation, the maintenance cost savings and the uncertainty of future threats, this plane is starting to look like a better investment."
