AEROSPACE

F-22 Production Should Be Delayed, GAO Says: The Pentagon should delay production of Lockheed Corp.’s F-22 next-generation jet fighter for seven years because the F-15 Eagle can keep meeting the nation’s tactical aircraft needs into the next century, a General Accounting Office report said. The F-22 is scheduled to succeed McDonnell Douglas Corp.’s F-15 as an operational part of the Air Force in 2003. The F-22 program is estimated to cost $99.1 billion, the GAO said, and 442 of the stealth jets are on order. But an Air Force official involved in the F-22, who asked not to be identified, criticized the GAO report for failing to consider that the F-22 is more effective in combat than the F-15 against multiple enemy fighters, and would cost fewer American lives.