The Air Force and F-22 Raptor contractors team is only a couple of weeks away from completing negotiations for a multiyear procurement contract that could serve as a foundation for additional aircraft buys beyond the deal and become a template for other similar deals.

The multiyear deal will provide the promised $225 million in savings over the proposed three years, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Riemer, the new Raptor program executive officer, told the Daily May 2 in his first media interview in his new job.

RAND evaluators are being brought in to scrutinize the procurement plan, Riemer said. Pentagon officials should begin their review in the first part of June to certify that the procurement strategy complies with appropriate laws and policies.

After that, the procurement plan will go to Congress for its review.

While one of the elements of the multiyear plan is to prolong Raptor production to make a bridge for the next fifth-generation U.S. combat aircraft - the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter - the long-term procurement plan will rise or fall on its ability to cut costs, Riemer said. It's been priority one for him since taking over in January, he said.

"We have to show the savings," Riemer said.

And the continuing question in Congress and some circles of the Pentagon is whether the cost savings being generated are enough.

"This whole summer people will be discussing the criteria and the savings," Riemer said.

It's been difficult enough, he said, to mold a multiyear plan for about five dozen aircraft in so short a time. Usually, a single contract has taken twice and even three times as long.

At the same time, he said, the Air Force and contractors have had to forge a single-year, single-lot deal in case the multiyear falls through, he said. That proposed deal will be ready for review at the same time as the multiyear.