Lockheed F-22A orders extended through 2012

Source URL: http://aimpoints.hq.af.mil/display.cfm?id=8714
Posted at: http://www.air-attack/com/news/news_article/959

The U.S. Defense Department is seeking to extend production of Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22A fighter jet through 2012 to retain the workers that will be needed to start full work on the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to a budget document.

The proposal, to be contained in the fiscal 2007 federal budget request that President George W. Bush plans to send to Congress on Feb. 6, would keep production lines open at plants in Marietta, Georgia, and Fort Worth, Texas. Lockheed currently is slated to deliver the last F-22A in 2010.

The extension, spelled out in a Dec. 28 memo from Pentagon Comptroller Tina Jonas, means Lockheed wouldn't face a two-year gap between production of F-22As and Joint Strike Fighters, the Pentagon's largest single weapons program.

Without an F-22A extension, ``the current workforce could be lost,' said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Lexington Institute, a research organization based in Arlington, Virginia.

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