F-22s forever?

Jim McAleese, a consultant with close ties to the Air Force,\nsaid the service was counting on receiving \$10 billion in additional funding as\npart of an expected \$57 billion increase in the Pentagon's overall base budget\nfor fiscal 2010 that begins Oct. 1 next year.

Work on a fleet of new refueling tankers, which the Air\nForce had named as its No. 1 acquisition priority, is expected to be delayed\nfor at least a year. The Pentagon decided in September to redo the heated\ncompetition between Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp, which teamed up with Europe's EADS.

The No. 2 priority program, a \$15 billion drive to buy new combat\nsearch and rescue helicopters, has also been delayed as the Air Force\nreviews competing bids from Boeing, Lockheed and Sikorsky Aircraft, a\nunit of United Technologies Corp.

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As a result, funding for both programs would likely remain under\nthe 'research and development' heading for a while longer, letting the\nAir Force use its limited procurement dollars for more F-22s, McAleese\nsaid.

McAleese also says that the USAF will be content to buy 60 more F-22s, which would reduce their roughly eight-year-old requirement from 381 to 243.

I strongly doubt that the USAF will ever be so content. When the time comes to close production on the F-22 line in another three years, I expect to see another huge fight.