The last Air Force F-22 Raptor rolls off the production line today
Posted on Tue, Dec 13, 2011 @ 11:09 AM
The final F-22 Raptor, the Air Force’s stealth fighter will come of the line at Lockheed’s Marietta, Georgia plant today.
The Raptor was widely acknowledged as the most capable fighter plane in the world. Each F-22 cost $150 million. The Air Force originally requested 750 F-22s, but cuts
in the budget led to the U.S. Department of Defense to cut additional orders in April 2009. Only a total of 187 were ordered over the life of the program.
2,000 people are employed by Lockheed’s Aeronautics Division in the Marietta, Georgia which builds the F-22. The Raptor is expected to be in service at least through 2025 and as long as 2040 when a replacement would be in place to allow retirement of the F-22.
In November the DOD announced continued funding for F-22 upgrades including the advanced tactical data link, accelerate the production line shutdown to four years, launch two structural upgrade programs and fund unexpected costs of upgrading F-22s with reliability and maintainability programs.
This is certainly good news for the employees at Lockheed Marietta.
Air Force pilots began training on F-22 simulators in 2003 which ran on SGI visualization computer systems.
We have been very fortunate to work with Lockheed Marietta over the years supplying SGI Onyx Visualization systems and upgrades through the years and we feel a part of the program.