F-22 Raptor

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is the most advanced air superiority fighter in the world, and is the newest fighter aircraft of the US Air Force. While the F-22 may be similar to the F-15 Eagle in both looks and performance, the F-22 has something the F-15 never had - stealth.

The F-22 is designed to continue US air dominance into the 21st century. It features some things that older American fighter aircraft never had, and will be able to counter every new foreign fighter.

In a series of simulated air combat tests done with a number of fighter aircraft versus the Sukhoi Su-35 (an expected opponent in the air for most Western fighters in the 21st century) using all available data, the F-15C, F-16C and F/A-18C, which are the current fighter jets of the US Air Force and US Navy, cannot beat the Su-35. The F-15C Eagle can shoot down about 0.8 Su-35s for every one of its losses and the F-16C Fighting Falcon and F/A-18C Hornet can shoot down 0.3 Su-35s for every one of their losses.

The J-10, which is China's latest fighter aircraft, as well as the French Rafale C fighter can kill one Su-35 for every one of their losses, which means they would be able to beat all current American fighters as well. The European Eurofighter Typhoon, which is being adopted by a number of air forces around Europe including the British Royal Air Force, the German Air Force and the Italian Air Force, can shoot down an amazing 4.5 Su-35s for every one of its losses.

The F-22 Raptor, however, can shoot down 10 Su-35s for every one of its losses, making it, according to tests done, the best air superiority fighter ever made.

The F-22 incorporates technology such as supercruise (which allows an aircraft to cruise at supersonic speeds without the use of afterburners, giving the F-22 the ability to go quickly from one point to another without using too much fuel), advanced integrated avionics and of course stealth technology (stealth features on the F-22 make it invisible to enemy radar, giving enemy aircraft less time to counter-attack when attacked by an F-22).

The only real problem with the F-22 is the cost - today the F-22 costs about $360 million per aircraft. An F-15C Eagle would be about $70 million in today's dollars. This makes the Raptor the most expensive military aircraft in history next to the B-2 stealth bomber (the B-2 is about $2 billion per aircraft). The entire development program for the Raptor has cost about $70 billion.

Nonetheless, the US Air Force is planning to buy 277 F-22s to replace the Air Force's fleet of F-15 Eagles. There is also a possibility that the F-22 may be sold to some of America's most trusted allies, with Japan seeming like the most likely customer.

The F-22 entered the US Air Force inventory under the designation F-22A in 2005. The first F-22 was delivered to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada on January 14, 2003. In late 2004 51 F-22s were in service with the Air Force, with 22 more ordered. On December 15, 2005, the F-22's entry into initial operational capability was announced.

As well as an air superiority fighter, the F-22 is also designed as a ground attack fighter. For this purpose it can be equipped with either two 1,000-pound JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions), two WCMDs (Wind Corrected Munition Dispensers) or eight 250-pound GBU-39 small diameter bombs.

For air-to-air combat the F-22 can carry six AIM-120 AMRAAM(Advanced Medium Range Air To Air Missile) and two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. It also has an internal M61A2 Vulcan 20mm Gatling gun with 480 rounds of ammunition. To keep the plane stealthy the F-22's M61A2 gun is concealed behind a hatch until it is needed. The F-22 also carries its missiles and bombs internally, just like the F-117 stealth fighter or B-2 stealth bomber. Guns, missiles and bombs hanging from a plane's wings or nose instantly show up on enemy radar. When they are behind hatches or in compartments inside the plane they don't.

Stealth, or invisibility to radar on the F-22 is accomplished by cutting down on the radar cross section of the plane. The radar cross section is how much echo the aircraft sends from radar. Everything has a radar cross section, but where a bird has an 0.01 square metre radar cross section the B-2 stealth bomber has an 0.75 square metre radar cross section. The F-22's radar cross section is almost the same as that of a bird. The F-22's RCS is so low because everything on the plane, internal and external, is made with special alloys that have little or no echo when hit by radar. The shape of the F-22 is roughly triangular, which makes the all-over shape reflect radio waves so that they do not go back to the radar of the enemy, thus the F-22 cannot be seen on an enemy radar screen.

The F-22 is fairly rounded, but when observed closer the all-over shape has angles to it. These angles scramble enemy radar all over, everywhere but back to the radar's origin. The engines of the F-22 are designed to make as little exhaust and heat as possible, making it harder to see on radar and by the human eye while it is in the air. Heat makes a plane stand out on thermal imaging and also make it a prime target for missiles. By reducing the heat the F-22 makes, the aircraft is harder to spot.

The shape of the F-22 is extremely aerodynamic, having the least amount of air resistance so that it does not create much turbulence. Turbulence of a plane is caused by the movement of the craft disrupting the air around it. A more aerodynamic fuselage minimizes turbulence, and also makes the plane more fuel economical. The more turbulence a plane creates, the more likely it will be picked up by the enemy's sensitive laser detection equipment.

An aircraft can be visually detected, or seen with the naked eye even if it has stealth features to avoid being spotted on radar. The F-22 cannot literally go invisible to the naked eye, but it does have techniques that make it hard to visually detect.

The F-22's engine design and supercruise ability reduce the fighter's smoke contrails. Smoke contrails are caused when the engines of a plane spurt out extra power. Any contrail, smoke or air, is something that makes planes easy to see from the ground or by a spotter in a plane. The F-22 is able to avoid the smoke contrail problem fairly well thanks to its supercruise ability.

Another type of contrail is the air contrail. Air contrails are the most commonly seen type of contrail. When the pressure of air surrounding the wing of an aircraft is disturbed and unbalanced, the moisture forms trails which come out behind the plane. These trails are air contrails. The F-22 decreases the likelihood of these contrails because of the horizontal stabilizers on the rear part of the plane. These stabilizers help evenly distribute the lift of the aircraft so that air contrails are avoidable.

The Raptor is painted in a medium grey colour. This colour matches the sky closely enough to fool the naked eye enough not to stick out. The grey colour also makes the plane harder to see by a spotter in a plane flying above the F-22.

The engine nozzles on the Raptor use ceramic materials which form saw-toothed edges, reducing their radar cross section, making them harder to spot on radar. The F-22 has a low height triangle appearance from the front. The triangular shape breaks up the plane's signature by absorbing or redirecting it.

The leading and trailing edges of the F-22's wing have identical sweep angles. The plane's fuselage and cockpit canopy have sloping sides, and it also has canted vertical tails. The engine face is deeply hidden by a serpentine inlet duct. These features make the aircraft harder to spot with radar or heat-seeking equipment.

A pilot's head and helmet is a major source of radar return when he is inside the cockpit of a plane, and so are internal bulkheads and frame members. The F-22's cockpit is designed so that it follows the plane's good radar cross section design rules. The cockpit glass is plated with a film similar to that used for temperature control in commercial buildings. The instrument panel reflection is less noticeable from the ground while the F-22 is flying at night.

F-22 development began in the early 1990s when the YF-22 Lightning II prototype fighter won a fly-off against the Northrop/McDonnell Douglas YF-23 for the Advanced Tactical Fighter contract. The name "Lightning II" changed to "Rapier" in the mid-90s, and then to "Raptor" when the first production-representative plane was unveiled in early April, 1997. The first flight took place on September 7, 1997.

The Air Force changed the F-22's designation to F/A-22 in September 2002, mimiking that of the Navy's F/A-18 Hornet. It was also intended to hilight plans to give the F-22 a ground attack capability. The F-22's official USAF designation is F-22A. It was changed to F-22A in December 2005, when it formally entered USAF service.

The US Air Force originally planned to order 750 F-22s, with production beginning in 1994. That later changed to 648 planes with production beginning in 1996. In 1994 it became 442 planes entering service in either 2003 or 2004, and 339 in 1997. In 2003 the Air Force decided to order just 277 F-22s. In 2006 the Air Force is saying it will lower its orders again to 183 Raptors. That would save $15 billion but would raise the cost of each F-22.

The F-22 will most likely not be exported to other countries, since most allies of the United States would not even be allowed to import such a high-tech weapon, but most can't even afford it. Many US allies have just recently acquired earlier designs of American fighter aircraft such as the F-15, F-16 or F/A-18 or are waiting to buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Japan recently showed interest in buying the F-22 to replace some of its older fighters, but it will most likely be a downgraded version but will still retain most of its advanced avionics and stealth features. This would require approval from the Pentagon, the State Department and Congress. The House of Representatives voted to lift a 10-year ban on foreign sales of the F-22 in June 2006.

Even though the cost of the F-22 is very high to buy, it uses less radar-absorbant materials than other stealth aircraft such as the F-117 or B-2. This would mean that it would cost less money to maintain the F-22 over time.

Armament: One M61A2 Vulcan 20mm Gatling gun with 480 rounds of ammunition, six AIM-120 AMRAAM and two AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and either two 1,000-pound JDAMS, two WCMDs or eight 250-pound GBU-39s