. >> reporter: the f-22 has had huge profits for the lockheed martin company. today at the corporate headquarters, the final of the f-22s were turned over to the air force. >> it's an an improvement to the modization effort. >> reporter: but even if the oxygen flaw is fixed, the plane is still a waste of taxpayer dollar. >> it's not flown a combat mission in afghanistan or iraq or are they planning to do so. >> reporter: senator john mccain said the plane was designed to fight a soviet jet that was never built and has no use now against the enemies that they are fighting. >> there is no purpose, unless you believe that al qaeda is going to have a fleet of aircraft. >> reporter: its critics say the air force can't even give the pilots enough hours in the air to train them. >> it's in the shop all the time. they are lucky if they can fly it every day. >> reporter: is it badly designed or badly produced in. >> both. >> reporter: for now, the f-22, the future of the america jet fighter jet s a $500 million aircraft some pilots are asking not to fly. what are they g

for the lockheed martin company, and in a ceremony today the final of some 187 f-22's was turned over to the air force. >> we complete the 22's fifth generation, flight or fleet. >> reporter: but for now, the prominent use is to perform tricks in air shows, a $500 million stunt claim. the fleet was grounded last year for five months and they could not fix the oxygen problem. as you will see on "nightline," the air force says it has added safety features for a flean they are calling a turkey and a lemon. >> they are flying the air shows at a lower altitude. thank you. >>> we keep hearing about medicaid fraud in the country. well, today, the largest nationwide bust in medicare history. seven cities, 107 doctors, nurses and social workers were charged and the fbi said they scrammed taxpayers out of nearly half a billion dollars. billing for ambulance trips that never halved. and in baton rouge alone, the scams took in $225 million. >>> and today, the end of the road for a colorful presidential contender, newt gingrich. announcing he is ending his campaign what he calls a truly wild ride.

the f-22 has meant huge profits for the lockheed martin company. in a ceremony today the final of some 187 f-22s was turned over to the air force. >> we complete the f-22 fifth generation, flight or fleet. >> reporter: but for now, the f-22's most prominent use seems to be to perform tricks in air shows, in effect, a $500 million stunt claim. the entire fleet was grounded last year for five months and they still could not fix the oxygen problem. as you will see on "nightline," the air force says it has added safety features for its pilots in a plane they are calling a turkey and a lemon. >> they are flying the air shows at a lower altitude. >> where they have plenty of oxygen. >> okay. thank you, brian. >>> when we turn to taxpayer dollars, we keep hearing about medicaid fraud in the country. well, today, the largest nationwide bust in medicare history. seven cities, from chicago to miami, houston to baton rouge, showing us how gigantic the problem is. 107 doctors, nurses and social workers were charged and the fbi said they scammed taxpayers out o

the f-22 has meant huge profits for the lockheed martin company and in a ceremony today the final of some 187 f-22s was turned over to the air force. >> we complete the nation's f-22 fifth generation fighter fleet. >> reporter: but for now, however, the f-22's most prominent use seems to be to perform tricks in air shows in effect a half billion dollars stunt plane. brian ross, abc news, washington. >>> criminal charges are now filed in the hazing death of a florida college student. >> this is the homicide by hazing. >> a and m drum major robert champion died last november after a a band ritual. he had to walk from the front to the back of the bus while getting pummeled by band mates. 13 people are now charged. >>> the drug enforcement administration is apologizing to a uc san diego student who was mistakenly left in a cramped holding cell for four days without food, water, even a toilet. engineering graduate student chan yell chong was picked up during a drug raid. he was questioned and told that he would be released. instead, he was handcuffed and placed in a 5 by 10-foot holding c

the f-22 has meant huge profits for the lockheed martin company.the final of some 187 f-22s was turned over to the air force. >> we complete the nation's f-22 fifth generation fighter fleet. >> reporter: but for now, however, the f-22's most prominent use seems to be to perform tricks in air shows. in effect, a $500 million stunt plane. the air force says some of the f-22s have now been deployed to the middle east as a show of force to iran and that it has added new safety features for its pilots while it tries to figure out what's wrong with the oxygen system in this expensive aircraft. brian ross, abc news, new york. >> something that costs $500 million, i expect the oxygen system to work properly. >> and if you know there's a problem, why hasn't it been fixed? this young man died two years ago. >> unbelievable. how it would take that long. 187 of these jets at $500 million each. do that math. $49,000 an hour to operate. and statistics show they are in maintenance one day out of every five. >> it's bizarre. >> that seems an extraordinary waste of

the company's successful and dramatic launch this morning takes space business away from russians. also potential business from lockheed and martin how dependent are these other companies on government work? who has the most to lose? lockheed martin. prime contractor for the f-35 and other programs. according to standard and poors 99% of lockheed's revenues come from governments, plural. lockheed says 82% of all sales comes just from the u.s. government. 61% just from the pentagon. that's because lockheed and other defense contractors do a lot of i.t. work for various government agencies. all right. compare that 99% to 90% of all sales are government related for north rup and l3rks. 86% for raytheon. 37% for boeing. saic's sales are 100% government related. not sure that's a growth industry. usually is. not sure it is now. >> jeff kilburg how do you play a defense sector here? and is private space flight likely to be germane to these companies' fortunes. >> it's a great point jane brought up. lockheed has really been a growing, dynamic company. 100 years. i think as they continue to roll out products into unmanned drone space the

lockheed martin. and riverbed technology. >> lockheed martin, there's a company with a dividend. >> facebook price syndicate. >> where is the syndicate? morgan, step up. maybe they are playing coy. >> they are waiting to draw people in. i don't know. maybe they won't let it close below 38. >> are they in there right now? >> i'm going to go make a phone call. >> who are you calling? >> i can't tell you that. maybe i'll try to get some answers. >> this is an avalanche. this is an avalanche. it feels like k-2. it's always hard to climb that slope. >> speaking of avalanche, shares of ndaq. that stuck suffered a drop on friday in light of glitches and this morning opening down 1.3%. suffering after issuing that mea culpa over the weekend for its role in the facebook ipo. >> one thing we haven't talked a lot is the role of a human being market maker and if that is somehow today more relevant than it was on thursday. >> great call. i know people that work in the surroundings of post nine were adamant that this was egg on the face of the nasdaq that would not have occurred here. i say by the grace of who you got, i

that is why these aerospace companies have joint names, lockheed martin. where did that come from? could use to be martin marietta. it used to be just lockheed. these companies started collapsing down into just a few. congress was were reached. what affect could this have on the aerospace industry of the nation? because aerospace was impossible for our military, airborne security, is responsible for transportation, commerce. they recognize there is a fundamental part of what it is to live in america in the 21st century and they want to get to the bottom of it. many of the aerospace company's not only make airplanes the spaceship's. so we have zero people on the commission and block the commission. i was counted as one of the space people. one of the trips that we took was around the world. this is 2,000 a half to the two dozen too, are around the world to keep places to find out, is there some competition that we are not living up to? what are they doing that we're not? we visited china. i went to beijing in 2002. my first time there are went there with the complete portfolio of ste

companies. just last week, bob stevens, the ceo of lockheed martin wrote to me, asking that we pass the treaty. he said, the multibillion dollar investments needed to establish an ocean based resource development business must be predicated on clear legal rights established and protected under the treaty based framework of the law of the sea convention, including the international seabed authority. other international players recognize this same reality and are acting upon it. countries, including china and russia, are moving forward aggressively within the treaty framework, and several of these countries currently hold exploration licenses from the international seabed authority. unfortunately, without ratifying the convention, the united states cannot sponsor claims with or shape the deep seabed rules of the isa. yet, that is the critical path forward that the united states intends to expand and insure access for both u.s. commercial and government interests to new sources of strategic mineral resources, and without objection, i will place the full letter into the record. i would point out to

they really have a real kind of unique leverage situation with a company it is interesting to see skyrocketing profits for lockheed martin just exponentially growing we see a twenty six percent increase in the fold of their profits just in the first quarter this year and yet they're cutting benefits time and time again for workers what are the strikers hoping to accomplish with the strike you know i think they're trying to say no no more concessions with the strike as well as demand solidarity because i mean they might not win in the end but in order to have a union in a state like texas it's not terribly union friendly you have to show that you can fight for something so that's certainly what they're trying to do in this situation here has lockheed started negotiations with them as anything on the table right now i mean my understanding is not lockheed is is talking to some of the workers i'm not sure when the last one was held but workers certainly hoping to make a deal can lock you to operate with this many people on strike and for how long well i don't know about its nationals facilities but they can't really operate

listen to our top companies khan the ceo of lockheed martin urged that the senate passed law of the sea treaty and i wanted to give an interview from his letter. he said the multi-billion dollar investments needed to establish an ocean based resource development business must be predicated upon clear legal rights established and protected under the treaty framework of law all of the sea convention including the international seabed authority and the others are acting upon it. countries including china and russia are moving forward aggressively within the framework and several of the country's currently holds exploration licenses from the international seabed authority. unfortunately, without ratifying the convention the united states cannot sponsor claims with four shape the deep seabeck rules of the isa yet that is the path forward the united states intends to ensure access for both u.s. commercial and government interest to new sources of strategic mineral resources and without objection i will place the full letter into the record. also would point out quickly that today there is a f

amazing is that this up start company only ten years old and founded by a now 40-year-old was the first to get it, the first it get to the station lead, beating out lockheed martin and boeing and other competitors. so a major development and how space x has written the hayeser to books. >> nasa said that it will rely on commercial flights. what can we expect in the years to come? >> reporter: >> reporter: president obama has really challenged nasa to think differently, to go deep space and let the private sector, the commercial sector take care of going to low earth orbit like the space station. so the idea is nasa should focus on the moon and mars and maybe on an asteroid. maybe landing men or women as well on not only mars some day, but an asteroid. maybe going back to the moon. so it's the big picture going deep and hopefully the private sector will do what space x is d. today and continue to repeat it. >> exciting day. tom, great to see you. >> i'll see you in the cafeteria. >> that's right. mac and cheese on me. >>> you can catch tom's full report at 7:00 right here on nbc nightly news. >>> weshlit's the start of our backyard weather summer series. >> and t

force from the president of the company to the engineer to the secretary to the person sweeping the floor numbered 35 people. when you look at a boeing or a lockheed martin where they hire tens of thousands of people ryan -- which later became a major player in aviation -- they had 35 people. and 35 people was what it took, and it was remarkable that they did it. working almost around the clock. once the contracts were signed, the parts arrived. lindbergh showed up in san diego in february, and they started working. lindbergh at first was not particularly well liked on the floor because he was down there looking over the shoulders of donald hall, the designer, and over the shoulders of the workmen down there that are like, you know, go away. what do you know about this stuff? he was a stickler for detail, and he was pestering these people. but after a while they came to realize that he knew what he was talking about because of his experience flying the likes of this airmail plane, he knew some things about aircraft design even they didn't know. one thing he insisted on the aircraft, instead of having one solid steel fuel line, he had, he had the designer

companies. just last week, bob stevens, the ceo of lockheed martin rotini urging that the senate passed the law of the sea treaty. i want to take a moment to read from the letter. he said the multibillion-dollar investments needed to establish an ocean-based resource development must be predicated upon clear, legal rights, established and protected under the treaty-based framework of the law of the sea convention. including the seabed authority. other players recognizes and are acting upon it. countries, including china and russia, are moving forward aggressively within the treaty framework. several of these countries currently hold exploration licenses from the international seabed authority. unfortunately, without ratifying the convention, the united states cannot sponsor claims with or shape the deep seabed rules of the isaf. yet, that is the critical path forward that the united states intends to expand and promote u.s. and commercial interests, for new sources of strategic mineral resources. without objection, i place the full letter into the record. i would also point out quickly that tod