When will the F-22 production line reach the point at which it will start shutting down without more orders? Sometime in summer of 2008, according to Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin’s F-22 program manager. The long-lead items on the Raptor need to be ordered about 30 months before they are installed on the airplane, Lawson said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington. The last of 183 planned Raptors rolls out of Lockheed’s Marietta, Ga. plant in 2011.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. had hardly left the Indo-Pacific theater before China flew a joint bomber and fighter mission with U.S. partner Thailand. In nearby Indonesia, the U.S. concluded exercise Garuda Shield alongside Australia, Japan, and Singapore. At each stop, Brown held an all-call…