F-22 Raptor: Report

In the modern era, wars are fought across multiple battlegrounds. Some are fought on the ground, some on the sea, and some even digitally. But the most powerful—and dangerous— of them all is the battle fought in the air. Fighter jets are “fast, jet-powered military aircraft designed for attacking other aircraft” (Oxford Languages). In other words, they are scraps of steel that can fly and are instruments of destruction. The power of these aircraft is often what decides the country’s attack power.

There are many different fighter jets for specific purposes. Today, the fighters that are considered the “strongest” are the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning, both fifth-generation fighters—the latest models. The F-22 was developed as an air superiority fighter and the F-35 as a multirole fighter. The F-35 has been sold to many different countries, including 40 aircrafts in the South Korean Air Force. The F-22, however, is under a ban-on-exports due to its scarcity and to protect its stealth technology and classified features. In this paper, we are going to look deeply into the history and the technology of the Lockheed F-22 Raptor.

In 1981, in light of the Soviet Union’s development of the Sukhoi Su-27 “Flanker” and Mikoyan MiG-29 “Fulcrum” class that was designed to counter the United States (US) fighters such as McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, the United States Air Force felt the need for an Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF). The new fighter would take advantage of the new technologies in aircraft design that were not available for the previous fighters, including composite materials, lightweight alloys, advanced flight control systems, advanced propulsion systems, and most importantly, stealth technology.

The Demonstration and Validation (Dem/Val) request for proposals—a document that solicits proposals, often made through a bidding process (Blake et al. 100)— was made by the US Air Force (USAF) to the companies in the aviation industry, with a strong emphasis on the aircraft’s stealth and its ability to supercruise—the ability to cruise at speeds of one and a half times the speed of sound or greater without the use of afterburner for extended periods in combat configuration (Federation of American Scientists). Due to the extensive requirements and the immense investments required to develop those technologies, partnership between companies was encouraged. On the 31st of October, 1981, two companies won out of the seven biddings: Lockheed, who teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics, and Northrop, who teamed with McDonnell-Douglas. After the 50-month Dem/Val phase, the two teams participated in the flight test of the two technology prototypes, the YF-22 by Lockheed and the YF-23 by Northrop. The YF-23 had better stealth technology and speed but was less agile than its competitor. The USAF chose Lockheed.

As the program moved into the Engineering & Manufacturing Development phase, the airframe of the fighter jet itself had undergone notable changes, such as the wing shape, degree of the wing’s edge, size of the vertical stabilizers, and so on. The majority of the aircraft’s airframe was manufactured by the prime contractor Lockheed Martin Aeronautics at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, where the final assembly was also performed. The partner contractor Boeing Defence, Space & Security provided the additional airframe components as well as the training systems. The F-22 was first unveiled on April 9th, 1997, and took its virgin flight on September 7th of the same year.

The F-22 Raptor is the first operational aircraft ever to combine supercruise, stealth, supermaneuverability, and sensor fusion in a single weapons platform—a term to describe basically any structure, vehicle, or mechanism that has weapons installed. In order to protect the aircraft’s superior stealth technology, the US Government imposed a ban-on-exports which shows just how powerful the stealth technology of the F-22 truly is.

Supercruise, as explained before, is the ability to fly at supersonic speed with a reasonable amount of cargo without afterburners. Afterburners are basically a type of booster that boosts the jet’s speed at the cost of using more fuel. As of now, the only fighter jet able to demonstrate true supercruise ability is the F-22 Raptor. Why this is important is because the aircraft can do more complex maneuvers than those without the ability to supercruise. For example, if an F-22 is being chased by an aircraft without supercruise ability, then it can just outrun the enemy aircraft. If the enemy aircraft chooses to use its afterburners to chase the F-22, then it will use more fuel and eventually fall back.

One of the F-22 Raptor’s most important features is its stealth technology. Measures to decrease the F-22’s Radar Cross-Section (RCS)—which decides the detectability of the aircraft— include airframe shaping, use of radar-absorbant material (RAM), and attention to detail such as covered hinges and specifically designed pilot helmets that could cause a radar return, in addition to the design for decreased radio emissions, infrared signature, and acoustic signature (Pike, “F-22 Stealth”). Compared to other stealth aircrafts, such as the F-117 Nighthawk or the B-2 Spirit, the F-22 is less reliant on RAM, which is expensive to maintain and susceptible to weather conditions. The B-2, for example, is not able to go on missions under rainy conditions. While the exact value of the aircraft’s RCS is classified, at certain angles, the aircraft has an RCS of 0.0001m2, equivalent to the RCS of a steel marble, which makes the aircraft very hard to detect.

Supermaneuverability by its name is pretty self explanatory; it means “the capability of fighter aircraft to execute tactical maneuvers that are not possible with purely aerodynamic techniques.” It’s basically the ability of having very good control over the aircraft’s maneuvers. There are many different maneuvers that the aircraft needs to be able to do for it to be considered as supermaneuverable, such as the Pugachev’s cobra maneuver and the Herbts maneuver. The F-22 was the first aircraft in the US that was capable of supermaneuverability. How this is used in real life can be shown in this situation: let’s assume that the F-22 is being chased by an aircraft incapable of supermaneuverability. If the F-22 uses the cobra maneuver, then suddenly the enemy aircraft finds itself in front of the F-22, due to the sudden slowdown that happens in the cobra maneuver (see Figure 1). The slowdown happens due to the immense drag and air resistance that happens when the aircraft pulls its nose up.

Figure 1. Cobra Maneuver performed by Su-27 (taken from

Finally, one of the aircraft’s most important functions is its integrated avionics system, provided by Boeing Defence, Space & Security. Through sensor fusion—the process of combining sensor data or data derived from disparate sources such that the resulting information has less uncertainty than would be possible when these sources were used individually (Elmenreich 173)—, the data from onboard and off-board sensor systems are filtered and processed to form a combined tactical picture, which enhances the pilot’s instantaneous situational awareness and decreases workload. The ultraviolet Missile Launch Detector (MLD) on board uses six sensors to provide the pilot with a full spherical image.

Right now, many countries such as France, Germany, Japan, Russia, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States have announced the development of new sixth-generation fighters. The first sixth-generation fighter is expected to start servicing between 2025 and 2030 in the United States Navy and replace the F-18 Super Hornets. However, since the goal of this project is a tactical fighter and not a stealth fighter, the F-22 is still expected to remain one of the key fighter jets in the US Air Force.