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WASHINGTON
- March 28 - 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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