F/A-22 Raptor Program Operations Accelerating Toward High-Rate Production

Published: Jul 20, 2004
Source: www.lockheedmartin.com



Farnborough, England, July 20, 2004 -- The F/A-22 Raptor air dominance fighter program - led by Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] - is producing aircraft at an ever increasing rate and is on track for 2004.

“During the first half of this year, we built 10 Raptors - that’s almost as many jets as we built during all of 2003,” said Ralph Heath, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and general manager of the F/A-22 Raptor program. “We’re well on our way to building the 19 F/A-22s we promised the Air Force we’d build during 2004.”

Earlier this month, the Air Force awarded the F/A-22 program its fourth production lot contract - raising the current number of Raptors on order to 74 production jets, with 50 aircraft yet to be built through 2006. In addition, the President’s Fiscal Year 2005 defense budget includes a request for 24 more jets, to be built as part of F/A-22 production lot 5.continue..