Air Force settles on 183 Raptors, plans new bomber by 2018

Published: Feb 04, 2006
Source: aimpoints.hq.af.mil



ORLANDO, Fla.-The Air Force has accepted a smaller F-22 Raptor fighter fleet, would like to field a new long-range strike platform around 2018 and expects to commence the competition for a new tanker platform before the end of this year, the service’s two senior most officials said yesterday.

The service also intends to reduce in size by about 40,000 airmen and reconfigure its warfighting headquarters to improve how they support regional warfighting commanders, they said while addressing reporters and later a general audience at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here.

After maintaining for years that it needed 381 Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built multirole Raptors to meet its future air superiority requirements and replace legacy F-15s and F-117s, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley now maintain that 183 of them will suffice, when coupled with a new, yet-to-be defined bomber aircraft, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and additional global strike assets.

“The program of record is, in fact, 183,” said Wynne while briefing reporters of the total Raptors that the service now intends to procure.continue..