Raptor Rising

Raptor Rising: So far in Fiscal 2009, the F-22’s overall mission-capable rates have been rising. Not by leaps and bounds, but steady improvement, nonetheless. From Oct. 1, 2008 to April 30, 2009, the Raptor’s MC rate among the combat air forces was 62.3 percent, according to information provided to the Daily Report by Air Combat Command. Through May, the number rose to 62.7 percent. And, as of June 26, the figure stood at 62.9 percent, ACC said. And during this fiscal year, contingents of Raptors have been on air and space expeditionary force rotations to Guam and Okinawa. Last year the F-22 program took some shots to the chin from then-Pentagon weapons executive John Young, who said Raptor MC rates were too low and the situation was getting worse. Conversely, Air Force officials told us in May that the trend line was positive, and the data we’ve seen now support that claim.

—Michael C. Sirak

6/30/2009

Verbatim

No Dog, Just Concern
"You know it concerns me that we keep hearing, 'Well this is something that the military doesn't want. They didn't ask for,' and all that. Then I go over there [Southwest Asia theater], and that's not their attitude at all. They have needs over there. Our lift capacity is in dire straights. … Now on the F-22—just yesterday we read about the T-50 … a fifth generation [fighter] that the Russians have. … I'm concerned about this. And I guess, you know, if we're down to 187 F-22s, and I think out of that only—what 120 are actually combat ready and used for combat. … I look at our committee—the Senate Armed Services Committee—and on these two vehicles I mentioned—the F-22 and the C-17—in Oklahoma. I don't have a dog in that fight. We don't have any parochial interest there. But it's the capability that we're going to need."
—Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), speaking during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Fiscal 2011 defense budget, Feb. 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Taming Expectations
"Every QDR disappoints those who look for radical reallocation of resources. The current fiscal environment is compounding that trend."
—Jim Thomas, vice president for studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefing reporters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2010.