F-22 cut justifications

1. WaPo article Premier U.S. Fighter Jet Has Major Shortcomings

some new stuff, lots of old stuff, loses points for quoting Sprey

key points
– $49,808/hour to fly (compared to $30,818 for F-15)
– from 2004 to 2008, average maintenance time per hour of flight grew from 20 hours to 34 (definitely a trend in the wrong direction)
– only 55% availability of the deployed F-22 fleet
– canopy only lasts 18 months of ‘flying time’ (whatever that means) before delamination
– canopy visibility has been hurt by brown spots and peeling requiring $120,000 refurbishments at 331 hours instead of spec’ed 800 hours
– of 22 key requirements, it met 2 in 2004, 5 in 2006 and 7 in 2008 (supposedly it will meet all 22 next year)

2. DefenseNews article Cartwright Talks F-22, Advocates JROC Changes

The need for more F/A-18G electronic warfare aircraft played heavily in the decision to halt F-22 production at 187 jets, says U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

. . .

the Joint Staff and Air Force had just concluded a study on sizing the F-22 fleet.

He said the study concluded it was more important to focus on fielding fighters for all three services “because of how we deploy.” It ultimately endorsed ending the F-22 program at 187 jets and fielding more F-35s and both models of the F-18 fighter.

Cartwright said the latter jet’s Growler model, designed for electronic warfare tasks, became a key part of the decision to halt the F-22 program.

That’s because the military’s war fighting commanders, in conversations with Cartwright, all expressed a desire for more aerial EW capability. And right now, that means more Growlers.

Cartwright said Pentagon brass have three priorities for tactical aircraft: field fifth-generation fighters; “keep a hot production line”; and keep open the F-18 production line, largely to maintain the flow of new Growlers.

The latter is key, he told the panel, because a hot F-18 line means “we can also produce front-line fighters” – the F/A-18 E and F models – for traditional fighter aircraft missions.

so it sounds like they do want to keep at least 1 production line open until F-35 is settled, but they can’t afford more than 1. And since there is a need for more Growlers, the F-18 line wins by default and the F-22 is the odd man out

this is also significant because (i believe) this is the first time we have an actual ‘study’ backing up the decision to stop at 187 as opposed to Gates’ ‘feeling’ or ‘belief’