A recent special publication, ‘The US Air Force at 75’ gave an overview of the world’s premier fighter – the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor
Today, some 17 years after it entered service, the F-22 remains the World’s best and most advanced air dominance fighter. Ask any senior USAF officer what the biggest problem is with the F-22? and they will all tell you the same thing. With just 195 built (eight test and 187 operational aircraft), and 185 in the current inventory (with only 125 combat-coded aircraft, the rest being assigned to training and test and evaluation duties), there simply aren’t enough of them.
The F-22 was the world’s first ‘fifth generation’ fighter, and applying the original definition of this term, the F-22 is still the only one, incorporating Low Observability (LO or radar ‘stealth’), super manoeuvrability and the ability to super-cruise, as well as advanced, integrated avionics and networked data fusion.
The first of two prototype YF-22s made its maiden flight on September 29, 1990. The YF-22 was Lockheed’s submission in the USAF’s Advanced Tactical Fighter competition, competing against Northrop’s rival YF-23. The aircraft underwent a minor redesign for production, with reduced leading edge sweep, smaller ver…
