Congress rides to the rescue of the F-22

The much-questioned F-22 seems to be living a charmed life. The House Appropriations Committee is discussing the possibility of adding billions of additional dollars in funding in the upcoming congressional supplementals. Not much is available in the way of details, but 20 additional fighters per year is a lot when the baseline number of fighters stands at 183. The estimations of future unit production vary widely, but observers agree that additional fighters can only lower the average cost of the total production run, now standing at a little under 160 million dollars. Perhaps Congress thought that getting four fighters for the cost of one lousy LCS wasn't such a bad idea after all. Regardless, the additional money could be a positive development for everyone (with the notable exception of Charlie over at Abu Muqawama).