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(KRT) - The Air Force may have to buy five or six fewer F/A-22 Raptors over the next three years to cover a cost overrun of $700 million to $1 billion, a top official said Friday.

Lockheed Martin Corp., which builds the F/A-22 in Fort Worth and Marietta, Ga., is scheduled to build 23 in fiscal 2003, 27 in fiscal 2004, and 32 in fiscal 2005. The fiscal year began Oct. 1.

Marvin Sambur, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, said a team of experts told top Pentagon officials last week that the cost overrun arose from problems with the fighter jet's tail fins and cockpit computer software that have extended its development phase.

The Air Force and Lockheed replaced their top F/A-22 program managers after the cost overrun was discovered last month.

The tail fin problem has been solved, Sambur told reporters, but software engineers at prime contractor Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co., a one-third partner on the plane, are struggling to integrate the Raptor's highly complex software.

"The aircraft continues to perform superbly in flight tests," Sambur said. "This issue in no way impacts our need for the F/A-22."

The Air Force still expects to field the first Raptors in 2005, Sambur said, but the development phase is now expected to last until November of that year instead of concluding in March 2004.

The service volunteered to pay the extra development costs from its Raptor production budget, rather than ask for more money, to put pressure on Lockheed and Boeing to bring down expenses, Sambur said.

The companies make their profit on the project only during the production phase, he said.

Critics have argued for canceling the Raptor because of its complexity and expense.

Sambur warned that canceling the $69.7 billion program was not unimaginable, though he called the Raptor the "cornerstone" of the Air Force's plans for the 21st century.

"This program is more fragile than a lot of people believe," Sambur said. "So we need to have optimum performance on all sides."

Designed during the Cold War, the F/A-22 combines radar-fooling stealth technology, new engines that let it cruise at supersonic speed and avionics that allow its pilot to target and kill numerous enemy planes simultaneously.

The Air Force also plans to add additional avionics software that will allow the plane to perform ground attack missions against the most heavily defended targets.

Air Force leaders consider the plane their top priority but the Raptor's cost - now estimated at more than $100 million per airplane - has forced the service to steadily cut the number of planes it plans to buy.

The Air Force has been planning to buy 339 Raptors by 2011, but a special Pentagon cost analysis committee estimates the service will be able to afford no more than 295.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked the service earlier this year to study whether it could get by with only 180 Raptors, but he is not expected to order such a major cut.

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