IT'S REALLY TWO JETS IN ONE AIR FORCE GIVES AIRCRAFT A MORE ACCURATE NAME.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

WASHINGTON - Hoping to breathe new life into a decades-old program, the Air Force is renaming and redesigning its new-generation Raptor stealth fighter.

The air-to-air fighter is being renamed from F-22 to F/A-22 and being outfitted with a different radar system, new weapons and enhanced air-to-ground capabilities, Air Force Secretary James Roche announced Tuesday at a press conference with Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper.

``It's not just because we decided one day that, gee, we ought to change the name,'' he told a press conference during an Air Force Association convention in a Washington hotel. ``It truly deserves to be called a fighter-attack airplane.''

The Raptor is intended to replace aging F-15 Eagles, which also were built primarily to shoot down other aircraft, rather than bomb targets on the ground. Later F-15s, the F-15E Strike Eagles, were built to attack ground targets.

In its ground attack role, the F/A-22's most important duty will be destroying enemy anti-aircraft missile sites, officials said. It also will be able to track and shoot down enemy cruise missiles, which are low-flying, jet-propelled winged craft.

Six Raptors are undergoing tests at Edwards Air Force Base, and a seventh is being modified at Air Force Plant 42 prior to more testing. The planes are assembled in Georgia by Lockheed Martin.

The Air Force had asked for more than 300 of the F-22s, but Pentagon officials have said they were considering cutting production to about 180. By redesigning the aircraft and promoting its ground-attack capability, officials are hoping to persuade the Pentagon to buy more.

Roche declined to say how many the service will ask for. The F-22 program has also been plagued by cost overruns, and though he gave no specific estimate, Roche said the cost of the radar system would be cut by about 30 percent.

After Congress capped the F-22 program at $37.6 billion, the General Accounting Office estimated 248 planes could be purchased for that price.

Jumper said the changes arose from studies done after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld asked the services to go back and take a fresh look at weapons programs, part of the military's effort to become a lighter, faster, 21st-century fighting force.

In answer to a question, Roche acknowledged that the name change could give the appearance of a publicity ploy at a time when the program might be in line for cuts.

``I understand that, and we could all have taken the position of let's not do it because we're frightened of that,'' Roche said, adding that intensive work had been done on the planned changes.

``It's inappropriate to call this thing a fighter when it's really a fighter-attack plane, and we wanted to communicate that to our own Air Force, first and foremost,'' he said.