Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon today awards its richest contract in history — at least $200 billion — for a fighter jet designed to reach supersonic speeds, land vertically and meet the varied needs of the Air Force, Navy and Marines.
For five years, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. have been designing, engineering and testing their entries in a competition that will have military, business and economic consequences for decades to come.
Lockheed is considered the favorite.
"It’s huge for us," said John Kent, a spokesman for Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas-based division Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, which would make the planes.
The Pentagon has said it wants up to 3,000 Joint Strike Fighter jets over the next 40 years. The plane is designed to replace the Air Force’s F-16 and A-10, the Navy’s F/A-18 and the Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier, and be used by Britain’s Royal Air Force and Navy, which want 150 of the planes.
To do that, the plane must be able to take off quickly, land vertically and on carrier decks, throw off radar and provide all the high-tech cockpit gadgetry demanded by modern warfare.
"It is a revolutionary aircraft," Boeing spokesman Chick Ramey said. "There’s a lot of technologies here that have never been done before, a lot of manufacturing techniques we’ll use that will never have been done before."
Boeing says the contract would mean 3,000 jobs in the Puget Sound area and another 3,000 engineering jobs and 2,000 production jobs in St. Louis. Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, Md., has said it will add as many as 9,000 jobs at its Fort Worth factory, which currently employs 11,000.
Boeing’s test model, dubbed the X-32, is more compact than Lockheed’s X-35. The X-32 has a gaping air intake on the front and dual lift nozzles underneath that power the vertical landings and short takeoffs. The X-35 achieves its short takeoffs and vertical landings with a single thruster and a lift fan at the top of the plane.
Both models have smooth, curved shapes and special materials to allow them to thwart radar. Until now, only Air Force jets have had stealth technology. The Joint Strike Fighter will "bring stealth to the masses," Kent said.
Lockheed has publicized more of its plane’s capabilities, which include taking off after just 500 feet. By comparison, the Air Force’s F-16 needs about 2,000 feet to get airborne. Both Boeing and Lockheed’s planes can land vertically.
"It is incredible to watch. It’s not often you see a supersonic plane hovering. Not ever, because it’s never been done before," Kent said.
The program has critics, including the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative arm. It issued reports in May 2000 and last week urging Congress to delay the project, saying the technologies need more testing and warning that the jet will cost more, take longer to build and have performance problems if it proceeds on the current schedule.
The Pentagon has said it conducted an independent review and found the technologies are adequate to move forward as planned. The first 14 jets are to be delivered in 2008.
The Clinton administration considered splitting the contract between the companies, but the Pentagon this year decided it was more cost-effective to choose just one. Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond, concerned at the prospect of Boeing’s St. Louis facility being closed out, has said he still will try to get Congress to require that the work be split between the companies.
Both companies have been waging an advertising war to try to influence the Pentagon’s decision. Both have published ads in Washington, D.C., newspapers, with Boeing touting its "experience to maximize value and minimize risk," while Lockheed boasts its test models have "exceeded all expectations."
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