I believe they were talking originally in the high 300's. Anyways, the AFT article says the AF Chief of Staff and Secty were both talking about buying 150 FB-22's as well.<br /><br />According to the terms of the F-22 contract, (according to Globalsecurity.org's up to date info), there should have been 94 F-22's delivered by the end of last year. <br /><br />You are correct that the first squadron is operational, the second should be in operation some time between last September and this coming June, and the third will be operational next fall, but they are not 12 plane squadrons. In all my time in the USAF, I never heard of a 12 plane squadron that wasn't coming back from a war and suffered heavy losses. The F-22 squadrons have 26 total aircraft, and are allowing for two hangar queens per squadron at any given time. <br /><br />So these numbers jive pretty closely with 94 delivered by the end of this past year, the fourth squadron is probably still at half strength right now and getting training going. <br /><br />While SecDef Rummy was trying to get the F-22 fleet cut down to 190 aircraft, to the strenuous objections of the USAF (looks like he was trying to short change them like he short changed our guys in Iraq). Right now the official SecDef story is production is at 90 planes a year now, and when production reaches 239, a decision on enlarging the fleet will be made by whoever Rummy's successor is. Air Force officials continue to say that 381 aircraft is the proper useful size of the fleet, will give one F-22 squadron to each AEF. As a matter of perspective, there are 918 F-15's in the USAF inventory. Models A thru D will need to be replaced by F-22s, while the E model will be replaced by the F-35 JSF.<br /><br />Given how many people have complained about the lack of fighter interceptor response on 9/11, there is a whole lot of complaining about keeping the interceptor force fully manned. Until 9/11, the last active duty fighter interceptor squadron was the 318th FIS