Re: Boeing Begins Flight Testing F-22 Block 3S Avionics

["Ken Garlington" <Ken.Garlington@computer.org>]

To be fair, he's always said that his goal is to make sure the F-22 is
adequately tested before a production contract is ordered. Reasonable people
(and unreasonable people, for that matter) can disagree as to the optimum
amount of testing. I think the real point Rep. (not Sen, by the way) Lewis
was trying to make last year is that there's a lot of expensive fighter
programs in the out years, and it's not at all clear that the budget will
support all those programs. He didn't feel that the DoD was adequately
addressing the issue, so he got their attention.

Note that I'm not agreeing with his position, by the way.

There's a pretty good interview with Rep. Lewis at

http://www.afa.org/magazine/0200jerry.html

that covers the same ground.

One person who does appear to have changed his mind is Rep. Randy "Duke"
Cunningham. Originally, he supported Rep. Lewis. After having flown in a
chase plane during F-22 testing, he has since said he thinks we should buy
more F-22s than currently planned.

"Kent Kinal" <kinalk@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:BO5O4.1746$x4.49690@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> I was perusing the on line Earlybirds today and noticed that there was a
> quote from Sen Lewis which acknowledged the importance of the F-22 and now
> instead of wanting to kill it he wants to be sure that it stays on
schedule
> and performs as advertised.  Was going to post link but it's behind a Mil
> server and won't let me in.  I'll post article next week.  Just found it
an
> interesting change of heart.  Wonder what the reason for his animosity
> toward the program was and what caused the change??