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DoD: Raptor upgrade slow, costs too much

The latest hardware and software upgrade for the Air Force’s F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet is over budget and behind schedule, top Defense Department officials told Congress on Thursday.

“The Increment 3.2 that we’re currently working on for the F-22 for our war-fighting customer is taking too long to implement,” Air Force procurement chief David Van Buren told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We are working with the company [Lockheed Martin] to try to speed that up and make it more affordable.”

Among other improvements, the upgrade will allow the F-22 to carry the AIM-9X infrared-guided air-to-air missile and the AIM-120D medium-range air-to-air missile, and to attack eight ground targets with eight 250-pound Small Diameter Bombs.

Software development appears to be the primary cause of the delay.

Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute, said the F-22’s software is written largely in Ada, a programming language that was once a DoD standard but whose use has waned in the past 15 years.

“It tends to impede quick upgrades to the system to which it is the base software,” Thompson said.

Moreover, he said, “The affordability of any upgrade becomes debatable when you purchase a relatively small number of upgrades.”

Lockheed has built 187 Raptors, of which two have been lost.

The company said it is working with the Air Force to accelerate fielding of the upgrade, which is split into two components, A and B, while trying to cut costs.

Lockheed has saved the Air Force $20 million by moving some electronic protection software from Increment 3.2B to Increment 3.2A, company spokeswoman Alison Orne stated in an email.

“We have successfully accelerated several Electronic Protection capabilities,” she said. “These capabilities were previously planned to field in 2017 and are now part of the 3.2A baseline planned to field in 2014.”

The company also is looking at 100 additional items on which it could cut costs for the second half of the upgrade.

“Each savings candidate is being reviewed for potential inclusion into the baseline Increment 3.2B program,” Orne said.

Despite Lockheed’s confidence, the Defense Department’s leaders are worried about the program.

“The F-22 modernization program is a concern to us,” said Pentagon procurement chief Ashton Carter, who testified alongside Van Buren at Thursday’s hearing.