F/A-22 vs. FB-22

Henry J Cobb wrote:
Scott Ferrin wrote:

The huge F/A-22 cost increase suggested by the GAO has many in the
Pentagon searching for its origins. "

The origins are in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, not the
GAO.

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d04391.pdf Page 8.
The Air Force has a modernization program to improve the
capabilities of the F/A-22 focused largely on a new robust
air-to-ground capability. It has five developmental spirals
planned over more than a 10-year period, with the initial spiral
started in 2003. Table 2 shows each spiral as currently planned.
In March 2003, the Office of Secretary of Defense’s Cost Analysis
Improvement Group (CAIG) estimated that the Air Force would need
$11.7 billion for the planned modernization program.

Note that this cost is for all five "spirals" which include a lot more than
just air-to-ground modifications and run well past the current budget cycle.
It's not clear that this is an increase per se, since life-cycle
modernization is always planned and seldom part of the initial budget.


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