Secretary of Defense certifies F-22 multi-year contract savings to the taxpayer doubles over previous estimate

WASHINGTON (June 29, 2007) - U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today announced that the Secretary of Defense has certified that the F-22 multi-year contract authorized in the fiscal year 2007 National Defense Authorization Act meets all requirements of the law and will result in a savings to American taxpayers of $411M. 

   The updated cost estimate was conducted by the RAND Corporation, a federally-funded research and development corporation, and delivered to Congress today. The previous cost estimate, conducted by the Institute for Defense Analyses, concluded that the F-22 multi-year would only save $225M. RAND concluded that the per airplane savings under the F-22 multi-year contract would be $6.85M, significantly higher than the per plane savings under the previously approved F-18 multi-year contract which was $3.8M.

   “This is a huge victory for the Department of Defense, the Air Force, and for the American taxpayers,” said Chambliss. “Some people were skeptical about the amount of savings that could be achieved through a multi-year contract for the F-22, and the RAND study proves that the savings are in fact substantial and are significantly higher than previously expected. I commend the Department of Defense, the Air Force, and RAND for the hard work they have done over the past nine months on this effort.”

   “The F-22 meets all requirements for a multi-year contract and will clearly result in substantial savings for the government. Almost every time I’m in an Armed Services Committee hearing, someone makes the point that we need to think of ways to do things better, cheaper, and with better acquisition processes in order to use the taxpayers’ resources more wisely. That is exactly what the F-22 multi-year contract will do by securing $411M in savings and allowing the Defense Department and the contractor to conduct business better, faster, and cheaper -- and that is good government,” Chambliss added.

Background

   Last year Congress approved a 3-year multi-year contract for 60 F-22’s conditional upon the Secretary of Defense certifying to Congress that the aircraft met the requirements for a multi-year contract, including certification that the contract would result in “substantial savings.” Additionally, the Secretary of Defense was required to provide an updated cost estimate for a 3-year multi-year contract compared to an annual procurement contract. 

   The 3-year multi-year contract for 60 F-22’s was authorized by a floor amendment by Senator Chambliss during Senate deliberations on the FY07 National Defense Authorization Act in June 2006. The amendment passed 70-28 and secured inclusion of the multi-year contract in the final bill.

   The F-22 is a first-of-a-kind multi-mission fighter aircraft that combines stealth, supercruise, advanced maneuverability and integrated avionics to make it the world's most capable combat aircraft. The U.S. Air Force considers the F-22 Raptor its top priority for air dominance, operational access, homeland and cruise missile defense.