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Project on Government Oversight (POGO)
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F/A-22 Gets Green Light Despite Crippling
Avionics and Cost Overruns
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| WASHINGTON
- March 27 - According to POGO sources, the Pentagon’s Defense
Acquisition Board has approved production of additional F-22s
but has postponed addressing the on-going avionics problems plaguing
the system.
The decision
echoes another disastrous procurement story. On the B-1 bomber,
crippling avionics problems that were not fixed before production
and eventually made the bomber unusable (see POGO’s Fighting with
Failures Fact Sheet on the B-1 Bomber at http://www.pogo.org/p/defense/do-020514-failures-b1bomber.html).
“The eyes and
ears of the plane do not work yet. It is irresponsible to spend
billions on a plane that may never work. For every single pie
in the sky F-22 the Pentagon can buy four tried and true F-16s,”
said Danielle Brian, Executive Director of POGO.
The General
Accounting Office has issued two reports in recent weeks documenting
uncontrolled cost overruns and technical difficulties in the program
(see March 13th POGO Alert “GAO Report Says F-22 Costs Soaring
Out of Control” http://www.pogo.org/p/defense/da-030301-f22.html
and March 17th GAO report “Tactical Aircraft: DOD Should Reconsider
Decision to Increase F/A-22 Production Rates While Development
Risks Continue” http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03431.pdf.)
In its most
recent report, the GAO recommended that the Secretary of Defense
“reconsider the decision to increase the annual production rate
of the F/A-22” in order to “minimize the risks of producing large
quantities of aircraft that may require costly modifications.”
According to the GAO, increasing the F/A-22 production rate “is
a high-risk strategy that could serve to further increase production
costs.” http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03431.pdf
POGO investigates,
exposes, and seeks to remedy systemic abuses of power, mismanagement,
and subservience by the federal government to powerful special
interests. Founded in 1981, POGO is a politically independent,
nonprofit watchdog that strives to promote a government that is
accountable to the citizenry.
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