Chambliss Stands Firm on Cost-Saving Multi-Year Agreement for F-22A

CHAMBLISS STANDS FIRM ON COST-SAVING MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT FOR F-22A

July 25, 2006

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today continued to make the case for a cost-saving multi-year procurement agreement for the Department of Defense to purchase 60 F-22A aircraft.

In June, the Senate overwhelmingly approved Chambliss' amendment to the fiscal year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act to grant the U.S. Air Force authority to enter into a 3 year multi-year procurement contract of the F-22A "Raptor" aircraft. Chambliss' amendment was co-sponsored by 20 Senators and was approved by a vote of 70-28.

During today's Senate Armed Services Committee Airland Subcommittee hearing, Chambliss reiterated the substantial cost-savings of a multi-year which, in this case, totals to roughly a quarter billion dollars. The Department of Defense (DOD) has already committed to the F-22A purchase and the multi-year procurement agreement is more cost efficient than individual yearly contracts.

"Obviously, a strong voice coming out of the Senate and a strong voice out of the House has indicated that this multi-year is not only appropriate, but it's needed, and it does save the taxpayers money. I am disappointed that GAO continues to repeat old, unproven arguments relative to the multi-year not saving money, claiming that the Air Force has no business case for the F-22 program, and attributing cost growth in the F-22 program to technical problems versus simple decisions by DOD to buy fewer airplanes - as they did in this morning's hearing. GAO and others also continue to focus on the risk the F-22 modernization program will have on future design stability of the F-22 when identical upgrades have been performed on similar aircraft during a multi-year procurement program.

"We have a weapons system that allows us to penetrate enemy territory and not fire to once, not to fire twice, but to fire three times before the enemy ever knows we are there. That's one of the reasons the pilots I talk to love this airplane. It's a great flying machine in addition to that, and now with this added capability of being able to carry additional weapons that can penetrate enemy lines and save the lives of Americans it certainly is one of the greatest weapons systems that we will ever see in our inventory.

"We're very proud of the job a number of folks have done over a long time, from the stage of initial development of this sophisticated weapons system to the point now that we are seeing it flown over the skies of D.C., over any other number of areas where we have ongoing operations. Significant savings of $225 million in Georgia is a lot of money - and my constituents appreciate any amount of money we can save, especially when it comes to $225 million [dollars]"

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