When will the F-22 production line reach the point at which it will start shutting down without more orders? Sometime in summer of 2008, according to Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin’s F-22 program manager. The long-lead items on the Raptor need to be ordered about 30 months before they are installed on the airplane, Lawson said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington. The last of 183 planned Raptors rolls out of Lockheed’s Marietta, Ga. plant in 2011.
As the Space Force prepares to field new fleets of satellites that can track moving targets in the air and on the ground, it’s working to ensure it has the organizational structures in place to onboard and operate those systems.
