The industry team of Lockheed Martin and Boeing is working with the U. S. Air Force and Pratt & Whitney to develop the F-22 to replace the F-15 as America's front line air dominance fighter.
Starting in 2005, the fast, agile and stealthy F-22 will begin to take over the air dominance role with Air Combat Command – assuring continued U.S. control of the skies during times of conflict well into the next century.
Contracts awarded
In August 1991, two contracts totaling $10.91 billion ($9.55 billion for the airframe and $1.36 billion for engines) were awarded for Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) of the F-22 and F119 to the then Lockheed/Boeing/General Dynamics team and Pratt & Whitney.
Contract changes, including three Congressional budget cuts and subsequent rephases of the schedule since then have elevated the contract values to a total of $18.6 billion.
Under the terms of the EMD contract, the F-22 team will complete the design of the aircraft, produce production tooling for the program and build and test nine flight-worthy aircraft and two ground test articles.
Rollout and first flight
The first F-22 built under the EMD contract was unveiled in a ceremony on April 9, 1997, in Marietta, Ga. The Air Force officially named the plane the F-22 "Raptor," meaning a "bird of prey."
The first flight took place on Sept. 7, 1997. Flight testing begins at the end of this month at Edwards Air Force Base.
Low-rate initial production is scheduled to begin in 1999. The Air Force plans to procure 438 production F-22s, and production is scheduled to run through 2013.
Information from the web sites of Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney were used in this story.