The Air Force argues that the scheme will cut $3.7 million off the price of each of the aircraft -- saving a possible $225 million -- and that it is necessary to keep advanced U.S. fighter manufacturing lines active while the Joint Strike Fighter comes on line. Shutting down production lines can scatter experienced workers and often incurs the cost of warehousing manufacturing components.

The F-22 production line was supposed to go cold at the end of 2007, but the USAF sought and won congressional approval to stretch it out until 2010 via an amendment to the defense authorization bill.

It was not without controversy -- all four defense committees considered and rejected the amendment during deliberations on the bill. The amendment was proposed and accepted on the floor of the Senate and House this spring.

The increased number of F-22s -- from 56 to 60 -- has already been approved by Congress. At issue is whether to use a multi-year contract to complete the purchase. Under that arrangement, the Pentagon commits to paying for all the aircraft at once at a fixed price and budgets for them up front, rather than year-by-year, as is customary.

Contractors and program officials like it because it removes the volatility from major weapons systems buys and allows a single price to be negotiated; cost savings can result from this arrangement because the contractor is better able to manage supplies, employees and the pace of work. Critics of multi-year programs argue it locks the Pentagon into buying expensive weapons and ties up funding that might otherwise be better spent on urgently needed equipment not anticipated when the multi-year deal was approved -- like up-armored Humvees in Iraq, for instance.

Moreover, multi-year deals net major savings when they are done earlier in the production of a weapon system -- when there are more jets or tanks to be bought, the savings accrue at a higher rate.

According to the GAO, the multi-year contract will result in a 2.7 percent savings on each of the remaining aircraft, a total of about $225 million -- less than would normally be expected.

"Historically, when you do multi-year contracts, it's typically at least 10 percent plus savings as compared to single-year contracts," said David Walker, GAO comptroller general.

Multi-year contracts also have expensive termination clauses that give the contractor a big payout in the event the buy is truncated. Given the F-22's history, that is a possibility.

The F-22 procurement program has been extremely turbulent, with the Air Force having to cut the number it plans to purchase repeatedly over the last two decades. The initial buy was planned to be more than 750, which was cut to 648, then to 442 and eventually down to 179. Last minute cuts to various Air Force programs in December 2005 -- including the retirement of the F-117 stealth fighter and the U-2 spy plane -- allowed the service to add four more F-22s, bringing the total back up to 183.

"Our review indicates that DOD's proposal to add two years to the production period of the remaining F-22As and to procure the planes under a three-year, multi-year contract will cost the taxpayers $1.7 billion more than called for to procure the last two annual lots as compared to the amount previously provided in the fiscal 2006 budget," said David Walker, GAO comptroller general.

"It depends upon what you use as the baseline. You can make numbers do a lot of different things, depending upon what the baseline is," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In the Fiscal Year 2006 budget, the Air Force proposed to buy 56 aircraft over two years, including 2006, which will end in September. In the Fiscal Year 2007 budget, it now wants 60 aircraft, stretched out over three years -- that is, adding two years to the end of the buy. The additional four aircraft fill out seven squadrons of F-22s.

"When you look at total cost, this is $1.7 billion more than they expected. Of that $1.7 billion, about $.7 billion is for the four additional aircraft and about a billion dollars is because we're stretching this out," said Walker. "You know, this program, depending upon how you want to calculate it, is anywhere from two to 15 years late, and now we're making it later."

Prime contractor Lockheed Martin has been awarded more than $800 million in incentive fees for its performance on the F-22, despite delays in the development program, Walker confirmed.

"I think part of the problem here is there's a difference between what people want and what we need and what we can afford and what we can sustain," said Walker.

Each F-22 aircraft costs an average of $185 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office, compared with the earlier generation F-15, which cost about $55 million, and the F-16, which cost about $25 million. The Air Force says it needs the F-22 to replace its aging fleet of fighters, and for its superior speed, weapons, and stealth properties.

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