Report to Congressional Committees. Tactical Aircraft: Concurrency in Developmentand Production of F-22 Aircraft Should Be Reduced

摘要

The concurrency between the development and production phases of the Air Force'sF-22 fighter program and the risk associated with that concurrency are assessed. Although the F-22 program involves considerable risk because it embodies important technological advances that are critical to its operational success, the F-22 program exhibits a high degree of concurrency because the program will enter production well before commencement of initial operational testing and evaluation (IOT&E). The Air Force plans to procure 80 F-22s under low-rate initial production (LRIP), or 18 percent of the total planned procurement, at an estimated cost of $12.4 billion, before completing IOT&E. F-22 production rates in the LRIP phase are planned to accelerate so that 75 percent of the full-production rate, or 36 aircraft a year, will be achieved under the LRIP phase of the program. The planned rate of acceleration, it is believed, exceeds the amount that is needed to successfully complete the LRIP phase of the program and essentially represents a plan to commit to a full-rate production schedule before IOT&E is completed. The need for the F-22, based on analysis, is not urgent. Moreover, engine and stealthiness problems already disclosed by DOD, and the potential for avionics and software problems, underscore the need to demonstrate the weapon system's performance through flight testing before significant commitments are made to production.