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Almost ♠ every year since the program’s inception, however, the F-22 has been hounded by budget-cutters in Congress and the Pentagon who ♠ question the Air Force’s need for such a powerful fighter. Especially now, with defense budgets at near-historic postwar lows, critics ♠ hold the Raptor up as a prime example of an expensive program that doesn’t know the Cold War is over, ♠ a case of technological overkill for the fighter threats that may pop up in the coming decade.

The F-22 program has ♠ been cut, delayed, or restructured so many times in the last seven years that most observers have lost count. Originally ♠ pegged at a buy of 750 airplanes, the planned inventory slipped to 650, then 600, then 442, and now, with ♠ the Quadrennial Defense Review, 339–slightly more than three wing’s worth. As the buy has descended, unit cost has climbed, and ♠ some members of Congress worry that the F-22 may price itself out of existence. As Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) recently ♠ remarked in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, “We must be vigilant that the program not go the way of ♠ previous programs” such as the B-2, “where the sticker shock overwhelms the capability improvements.”

To underline the point, Congress has imposed ♠ aR$40.9 billion program cost cap on the F-22, much as was done with the B-1B and B-2 programs. If the ♠ project exceeds the cap, the Air Force must fund the overage from other accounts.

With the reduced buy, the Pentagon also ♠ cut the peak production rate of the F-22 from 48 per year to 36 a year, reduced the engine buy ♠ from 1,027 to 777, and cut the initial production batch from 70 to 58 aircraft.