Kevin Brooks wrote:

"phil hunt" wrote in message
. ..

I was under the impression that the current build number was 276,
and congress is considering reducing it to around 180. In any case,
there seems no likelihood that 400 will be built unlress the present
political climate changes a lot.


Last I heard the authorized (by Congress) total was 339, with the USAF
thinking it might be able to stretch that into a 400 aircraft total by using
some economies (which is looking increasingly less likely). The 180 figure
was being bandied about by the DoD procurement gurus as a possible "reduce
to" figure.




A source for the 276 figu

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../f-22-cost.htm

From that (Last paragraph - the second-to-last paragraph discusses the
180 figure):

"Air Force officials announced 07 November 2002 a potential cost overrun
of up to $690 million in the engineering, manufacturing and development
phase of the F/A-22 program. The potential overrun appeared to be
related to achieving cost and schedule in the developmental phase of the
program, officials said. It is not related to its technology or
performance. The aircraft remains on schedule for first aircraft
delivery in 2004 and initial operational capability in 2005 as planned.
The projected overrun is about 3.3 percent of the program's $20 billion
development phase and about 1 percent of the program's $69.7 billion
estimated total pricetag. The Pentagon approved an $876 million
restructure to finance the extended development effort. The restructure
sliced $763 million from the procurement profile, cutting 49 airframes
from years 2004 to 2009. This decision brought the procurement profile
from 325 to 276 through FY-09. "