Obama budget saves F-22 Raptor

New report provides detailed analysis of the Defence market

The December 2009 budget will save the F-22 Raptor fighter plane, due to an appropriation of US$6.3bn for the US Air Force (USAF). Exports of these advanced systems are vital for business and to maintain skilled employment.

No, these billions and billions of dollars will not buy a single additional aircraft, much less provide any for export.

Instead these funds are needed to upgrade the USAF's existing F-22s to a combat configuration. So they can actually be sent to war rather than just to airshows.

Defense Writers Group transcript, page 15

So one thing that's in the budget and I talked about yesterday is to bring more of that fleet, most of that fleet, to a common, high end, capable configuration. But the cost of that is $6.3 billion of R&D. This is in a platform we've already developed. We're going to spend six billion more of R&D to engineer the 3.2 upgrade for the software and the changes in the jet, and then about $2 billion to modify on the jets. That's $8 billion more, and $8 billion I think needs to be spent in order to make sure the 183 airplanes we have will be highly capable fighters.

So the $6.3 billion is only the start of the costs for the Raptor, not the end.

-HJC