The F-22 Raptor is reputed to be the ultimate fighter jet for air superiority; it is the personification of American creativity in aerospace. It is a 5th-generation stealth aircraft combining state-of-the-art technologies in a supersonic highly maneuverable frame. Yet with all these unparalleled capabilities, the Pentagon only decided to buy 186 out of the 750 ordered, and Congress voted overwhelmingly to prohibit foreign sales.
Debuting in 2005, the F-22 was designed to replace the very successful F-15 Eagle, with the assurance of American air dominance well into the 2040s. The first was a 5th-generation sneak fighter in the sky, stealth, sensor fusion for the best situational awareness, and an airframe suitable for supercruise.
Integral to the F-22 is the thrust vectoring capability. The plane has two engines with nozzles that can elevate or decrease angle-wise, allowing the aircraft to perform 70,000 pounds of thrust entirely free from the flight path. This makes it possible for the F-22 to execute incredible aerial acrobatics and maintain a high angle of attack during dogfights.
Some of the Raptor’s versatile armament includes: For its combat air patrols, it carries two AIM-9 Sidewinder short-range heat-seeking missiles and six AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range radar-guided missiles. Close air support or hits on small areas might see this arsenal supplemented with two 1,000-pound GBU-32 JDAMs or eight 250-pound Small Diameter Bombs, in addition to its typical missile setup. All those weapons live under its stealth profile, hidden from view, showing to the enemy on its exterior. The F-35, also an American stealth fighter, can only carry four weapons internally.
The F-22 has an operational ceiling of 50,000 feet and a range of close to 1,900 miles equipped with external fuel tanks, external fuel tanks that would make the aircraft not so stealthy when delivered. It can travel at Mach 2-plus. Those characteristics, however, were unavailable with the F-22 program curtailed due to several causes, mostly bad timing.
It is in the context that the F-22 was drawn into the service toward the latter stages of when the U.S. military was already heavily involved in the Global War on Terror against irregular forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. The aircraft’s ability to perform advanced air superiority and stealth capabilities was underutilized against an enemy not possessing sophisticated air defenses or fighters. Its potential hence seemed overshadowed by requirements immediate to the conflict.
Of 186 delivered, only about 130 were available at any given time for use. The total number of combat-ready Raptors today is probably in double digits, not more than a hundred because every flight is expending the total remaining fleet of replacement parts. The final Raptor came off the production line in 2011, the production line having been tooled up, by Lockheed Martin, who built the F-22 in the first place, to service the F-35 program instead.
Although many of the United States’ military allies like Israel, Japan, and Australia have shown some interest in purchasing the F-22 Raptor, the U.S. government has always turned down offers for sale to foreign buyers. Evidently, in 1998 members of Congress concurred by passing an amendment that would make export of the F-22 Raptor to foreign countries prohibited. The F-22 Raptor were not intended to be sold to other nations. It was built with several top-secret technologies involving new ways of production, and it can keep these technics relatively safe. The U.S. was also fearful that a nation like China or Russia could reverse engineer produced Raptors from Stealth technology that is used on the Raptors.
Exporting the F-22 was studied by the Department of Defense, but it never got the money from Congress to do an export variant. In the end, potential buyers closed a deal with the more expensive but available F-35.
To finalize, the F-22 Raptor stays one-of-a-kind in the U.S. Air Force inventory: a symbol of unparalleled aerial supremacy and a reminder of all military procurement and geopolitical machinations.