Posted on 03/11/2008 10:51:04 AM PDT by bamahead
The Marietta-built F-22 Raptor is capable of amazing feats.
It can cruise at 1,100 miles an hour, soar to 60,000 feet, and destroy air and ground targets with ease, all while staying virtually undetectable to radar.
It is a technogeek's dream, a unique blend of speed, stealth and maneuverability designed to make pilots swoon and enemies duck and cover.
The question is: Can the Raptor fight off an even fiercer foe — a budget-conscious Defense Department that wants to cap Raptor production at 187 planes?
In Cobb County, especially, there is keen interest in the answer. Lockheed Martin's giant plant in Marietta assembles the plane, and roughly 2,000 of the facility's 7,000 jobs are tied to its production. Without new funding, the project will start ramping down at the end of 2008 and wrap up by 2011.
Should that happen, the company says, jobs "would be lost."
Lockheed, said Cobb County Chamber of Commerce Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President Don Beaver, "is a strategic asset for our country, a treasure for Georgia because of the multi-million-dollar contracts that are shared by vendors throughout the state, and a stalwart in the county since the plant was built. Lockheed's been more than just jobs, they've been part of the fabric of this community forever."
The debate has pitted the Pentagon on one side against the Air Force and members of Congress on the other.
Originally, plans called for several hundred Raptors to be built, but over the years the number was whittled amid cost concerns and changing priorities.
In December, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called for Raptor production funding to stop at 187 planes.
Recently, the Air Force suggested 380 would be more like it.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
He’ll push that only if it comes with two men to push it so we don’t have to die from carbon emissions.
There are only 75 operational B-52’s left. The rest have been cut into pieces and sold for scrap.
I agree, I would like to see more than 250; love to see the 300+ the airforce wants. however, I don’t think the dims in congress will go for it.
Our force will consist solely of gliders. How we actually get them airborne that’s another issue...
I am asking the Moderator to ban Doughty for all time! Didn't anyone notice he said, "Two men to push it?" Where's the diversity, Doughty?
When Algonquin J. Obama becomes our Presidente for Life, you will be sent to a Re-Education Camp, where hopefully you will learn politically correct speech.
It should be painfully obvious to you that when our Air Force leader accepts the Koom-by-Yah-1 for service, she will make sure that it is propelled into the air by an appropriately diverse crew, including many affirmative action appointees of all the sexes in the service, including a mixed-race gay married couple.
Of course. it goes without saying that the Koom-by-Yah-1 will be unarmed.
I don’t think it could get off the ground if it WAS armed.
As far as the re-ed camps go, I doubt I’ll be there. I probably am on the red list or the blue list.
LOL...
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