The U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor is considered a fifth generation fighter due to its technological advances.

If Congress pulls the plug on the continued manufacturing of this lethal aircraft, some Meridian workers at the Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, and approximately 95,000 workers nationwide, may be out of a job.

President Barack Obama must decide by March 1 whether to buy more of the supersonic jets or let the current contract end in December 2011.

Rob Fuller, communications manager for the F-22 project in Maryland, and Joe Mercado, plant manager of the Meridian facility, talked recently about the air superiority fighter's impact in terms of national defense and what the loss of so many jobs would mean to an already reeling economy.

"The Raptor is the only fifth generation fighter in the world in full production," Fuller said. "No one else has anything that rivals it in the air. Also, there are so many implications if production were to stop. Those tens of thousands of workers nationally that would be out of a job represents about a thousand suppliers who work on some sort of system used in the aircraft."

"As far as the facility here in Meridian is concerned, there are only about 20 workers devoted to the manufacturing of the tail assembly on the Raptor," Mercado added. "That is out of a total work force of almost 200 people. I don't mean to lessen the importance their jobs mean to the families of those 20 people. It is very possible we could transition those workers to the C-130 product line, which is the major contract we have. But would the loss of the Raptor contract cripple us here in Meridian? No."

Lockheed Martin has been a corporate member of Lauderdale County for more than 30 years.

Raptor production is slated to end after 2011 when Lockheed Martin is scheduled to deliver the last of 183 aircraft. The Air Force told Congress earlier this year that it would need up to 250 F-22s to maintain air superiority. But in its 2009 budget request the Pentagon did not include money to keep producing the Raptor.

"We are definitely in a wait and see mode," Fuller said. "Although it's hard for me to remain neutral in this issue, I do think as a nation we would need more than 183 F-22s in order to get the job done."

It's not like Lockheed Martin would lose out completely if the Raptor's production is stopped. They also have the F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter contract that many in the nation's capital are pointing to in order to fill the gap. The F-35 is touted as a lower cost fifth generation fighter.

Bill Lynn, the designee to become the deputy Secretary of Defense, said at his confirmation hearing that part of an early strategic review includes the Pentagon deciding on the right mix of F-22s and F-35s. Fuller outlined why that train of thought was being considered and why it weighs into the decision by Obama whether or not to stop production of the Raptor.

"Generally speaking, the Raptor is a pure air superiority fighter that can defeat anything in the air and avoid enemy radar," said Fuller. "The F-35 is also a fifth generation aircraft with many of the same attributes of the Raptor. But what makes it different from the Raptor is the fact it is a multi-role jet that all the military branches, the Air Force, Navy and Marines, are slated to receive. It can do ground attack plus a variety of other roles. The trick is figuring out how many F-22s it would take to gain control of the skies so the F-35 can do its job effectively."

There are a great many lawmakers who want to keep the Raptor and ensure the United States has enough fighters to get the job done. So far, 170 lawmakers have signed a letter supporting continued production of the Raptor.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a defense appropriator from a state home to Boeing (Lockheed Martin’s subcontractor on the Raptor), said in a statement, "Continued F-22 production is critical to both the national security and economic interests of our country … At a time when we are looking to create jobs and stimulate the economy, eliminating the $12 billion in economic activity and thousands of American jobs tied to F-22 production simply doesn’t make sense."

According to The Hill, a Web site that monitors governmental issues, a group of 44 senators — 25 Democrats and 19 Republicans — have sent Obama a letter pleading for continued F-22 production. The letter said in part, "The F-22 Raptor is the nation's most capable fighter and the world's only operational fifth-generation fighter aircraft in full-rate production … The F-22 is a model production line and, since full-rate production began, the unit flyaway cost has decreased 35 percent."

By the time all 183 fighters have been purchased, $34 billion will have been spent on actual procurement, resulting in a total program cost of $62 billion or about $339 million per aircraft. The incremental cost for one additional F-22 is around $138 million; decreasing with larger volumes. If the Air Force were to buy 100 more F-22s today, the cost of each one would be less and would continue to drop with additional aircraft purchases.

But stop the production of the Raptor and the United States may be vulnerable if other countries produce a fifth generation aircraft of their own. In order to start up the production of the Raptor after a shutdown would drive the cost per unit through the stratosphere. Many believe it is more prudent to continue with production in order to get the numbers needed to defend American interests. Many defense experts put the number of Raptors needed at close to 400 units.

"If you look back over the history of this country, we've only been prepared for a conflict one time and that was the first Gulf War," Fuller pointed out. "If you'll remember our F-15s, F-16s and F-18s provided total air control after a very short period of time. Then we executed the war at our choosing. Stop the F-22 now when we are consistently rolling out these awesome jets and we run the risk of coming up short if another major conflict breaks out."

The F-22 is not the most expensive aircraft aloft. That distinction likely belongs to the roughly $2.2 billion-per-unit B-2 Spirit stealth bomber whose orders went from 132 to 21 when the Cold War ended thus making the unit cost skyrocket.