F-22 Crashes Near Edwards Air Force Base

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. —  An F-22 Raptor, one of the Air Force's top-of-the line fighter jets, crashed Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California and there was no immediate word on whether the pilot ejected.

The jet crashed 35 miles northeast of the base at a location six miles north of Harbor Dry Lakebed, said Gary Strassburg, a Pentagon spokesman. He had no information about the area.

Rescue crews were en route and the status of the pilot was unknown, said Air Force Maj. David Small at the Pentagon.

Small said the jet, assigned to Edwards' 412th Test Wing, was on a test mission but he did not know its nature.

Call to the base public affairs phone numbers were answered by recording machines.

Designed for air dominance, the radar-evading stealthy F-22s each cost $140 million. The warplanes can carry air-to-air missiles but is capable of ground attack as well.

The $65 billion F-22 program is embattled, with some opponents contending that a different warplane under development, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is more versatile and less costly at $80 million per plane.

The U.S. is committed to 183 F-22, down from the original plan laid out in the 1980s to build 750.

Its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin Corp., says there are 95,000 jobs at 1,000 companies connected to the F-22.

A spokesman for Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin referred all calls about the crash to the Air Force.

Lockheed is trying to convince the Pentagon to buy as many as 20 more F-22. The military is expected to signal if it wants more when the 2010 Defense Department budget is released next month.

The F-22 is able to fly at supersonic speeds without using afterburners. That allows it to reach and stay in a battlespace faster and longer without being easily detected.

The fighter, powered by two Pratt & Whitney engines, is 62 feet long, has a wingspan of 44 1/2 feet and is flown by a single pilot.

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