As a result, Blair himself stood to financially profit from a favorable MYP decision for the F-22A. As of July 5, 2006, Blair owned 1,787 shares of stock and 30,000 stock options in EDO Corporation, which manufactures essential suspension and release equipment for the F-22A. Blair, USN (Ret.), is on the Board of Directors and a significant financial beneficiary of an F-22A subcontractor. What was not known at the time of the MYP vote was that IDA President Admiral Dennis C. ( Appendix D) This claim appears to be based on a misreading of the IDA report. Lockheed sent an email to Senate offices claiming the IDA had found that the F-22A would meet all the requirements for an MYP. ( Appendix C) In the hours leading up to the debate on the Pentagon budget bill, Lockheed's lobbyists and its Congressional supporters promoted the surprising finding of IDA, a federally funded non-profit institute that conducts research for the federal government. IDA concluded that the government would save about 2.5% – totaling around $225 million to $235 million – by using the strategy. Only one opinion, that of IDA, differed from the rest. Documents obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) show that even the Air Force raised significant questions as late as February 2006 about whether the F-22A would meet all the MYP requirements. The CRS, GAO, and CBO all provide evidence that the F-22A program is not yet ripe for this type of financing scheme and that putting the F-22A into an MYP at this stage would be premature.
In order for MYP status to be granted, a program must meet all six requirements. In the lead up to the Senate vote and related budget debates in the House, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) were tasked with evaluating whether or not the F-22A program met the six legal requirements for an MYP strategy. An MYP would also result in the American taxpayers paying Lockheed $1 billion more than they would under the normal annual procurement process. If Lockheed is able to secure MYP status, it would essentially lock the government into buying 60 more of the troubled F-22A's and minimize the possibility that the program could suffer further funding cuts. Lockheed Martin (Lockheed), the lead contractor on the F-22A program, lobbied aggressively to secure the MYP deal. In June 2006, the Senate passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 which authorized the government to purchase 20 F-22A 1 Raptor fighter jets each year for 2008, 2009, and 2010 using a multiyear procurement (MYP) strategy.