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Fighter Jet Crashes in California Desert
AP
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (March 25) - One of the Air Force's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California. There was no immediate word on whether the pilot ejected.
The F-22 Raptor crashed 35 miles northeast of Edwards Air Force Base, Pentagon spokesman Gary Strassburg said. He had no information about the area where the jet crashed.
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 the 411th Flight Test Squadron of Edwards' 412th Test Wing, was on a test mission but he did not know its nature. The crash occurred at midmorning.
Call to the base public affairs phone numbers were answered by recording machines.
The radar-evading F-22s each cost $140 million and are designed for air dominance. The warplanes can carry air-to-air missiles but are 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.
F-22s were grounded for two weeks after one crashed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in December 2004. They were cleared again to fly after a review, and an Air Force statement at the time said officials were "highly confident in the design, testing and development" of the aircraft. The pilot in that crash successfully ejected.
The U.S. is committed to 183 F-22s, 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-22s. The military is expected to signal its intentions 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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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-03-25 16:29:48
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Sharkey2
07:15 PMMar 25 2009
bah... pardon my typo in line 3.
Sharkey2
07:14 PMMar 25 2009
I work at the Lockheed plant where the F-22 is built and I see them fly them almost every day. This is a terrible accident and I hope pilot is somewhere waiting to be picked up by his comrades. These planes truly are amazing an amazing technoology and I hope people realize this doesn't mean the whole fleet is a waste. This is a terrible, TERRIBLE accident, and I pray for the pilot and all those involved.
DonRusso999
06:47 PMMar 25 2009
Prayers for the Pilot, his family and his co-workers.
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