Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is the world’s first fifth-generation fighter, and after more than twenty years in service it is still the aircraft other air forces design against. It combines stealth, sustained supersonic cruise and thrust vectoring in a single airframe, a package nothing else in service fully matches.

It is also the fighter America stopped building. The Air Force wanted 750, then 381, and ended up with 186 operational jets when the line closed in 2011.

That decision shapes everything about the Raptor today. Every airframe is irreplaceable, every upgrade has to be worth doing on a fleet that will never grow, and the aircraft has become the bridge to a sixth-generation replacement that is still years away.

What the F-22 Raptor Actually Is

The F-22A is a single-seat, twin-engine air superiority fighter built by Lockheed Martin with Boeing as a full program partner. Lockheed builds the forward fuselage and wings and performs final assembly in Marietta, Georgia. Boeing supplies the aft fuselage, the wings’ structural work and the avionics integration.

Its primary job is killing other aircraft before they know it is there. Secondary roles include precision ground attack, electronic warfare and signals intelligence, all added by upgrade rather than designed in from the start.

The Raptor is the definitive example of what makes a jet fifth generation: low observability from every aspect, integrated sensor fusion, supersonic cruise without afterburner, and a cockpit that presents a single fused picture rather than a wall of separate displays. It regularly tops lists of the best fighter jets in the world for exactly that combination.

How the Raptor Was Born

The F-22 came out of the Advanced Tactical Fighter program, which entered demonstration and validation in 1986. The Air Force wanted a fighter that could beat the Soviet Su-27 and MiG-29 generation and survive against dense surface-to-air missile networks.

Two prototypes flew in late 1990: Lockheed’s YF-22 and Northrop’s YF-23. The YF-22 won, and engineering and manufacturing development began in 1991 under Lockheed and Boeing for the airframe and Pratt & Whitney for the engines.

The first F-22 flew on 7 September 1997. Production began in 1996 and low-rate initial production was approved in 2001, but the type did not formally enter service until 15 December 2005, when it also shed the short-lived F/A-22 designation and became the F-22A.

Full-rate production followed in 2005. The 195th and final airframe, counting eight test jets, was completed in December 2011 and delivered in May 2012.

Stealth: Why the F-22 Is So Hard to See

The Raptor’s low observability is structural, not a coating applied to a conventional shape. The planform aligns leading and trailing edges, the intakes use serpentine ducts that hide the compressor faces from radar, and every weapon is carried internally in bays that stay closed until the moment of launch.

Radar-absorbent materials are built into the skin rather than sprayed over it, which was a deliberate reaction to the maintenance burden of earlier stealth fighter jets. Even so, the coatings remain one of the fleet’s biggest sustainment costs, and more durable versions are part of the current upgrade work.

Stealth on the F-22 is broadband and all-aspect, meaning it is designed to defeat high-frequency fire-control radars from the front, sides and rear rather than only head-on. Low-frequency search radars can detect that something is out there. Getting a weapons-quality track on it is a different problem entirely.

Supercruise, Thrust Vectoring and Raw Performance

Two Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 engines give the Raptor its defining trick. Each produces roughly 26,000 lbf dry and 35,000 lbf in afterburner, and the aircraft can hold Mach 1.76 on dry thrust alone.

That is supercruise, and it matters for two reasons. Afterburner burns fuel at several times the dry rate, so sustained supersonic flight without it multiplies the useful radius, and an unlit engine gives an infrared search-and-track sensor far less to work with.

The F119 nozzles vector thrust 20 degrees up and down in the pitch axis. Combined with a thrust-to-weight ratio above 1.0 and a 9 g airframe limit, that gives the Raptor post-stall handling that pilots of every other type in the inventory describe as unfair.

Top speed is Mach 2.25, which puts the F-22 among the fastest fighter jets ever flown operationally, though speed is not what the aircraft is actually valued for.

Sensors and the Avionics That Do the Real Work

The AN/APG-77 active electronically scanned array radar can search, track, jam and transmit data while spreading its emissions across frequencies to make itself hard to detect. The improved AN/APG-77(V)1, with air-to-ground modes and synthetic aperture mapping, was certified in 2007 and fitted from Lot 5 onward.

The AN/ALR-94 electronic warfare suite is the passive half of the picture. It uses more than 30 antennas built into the wings and fuselage to detect and geolocate emitters at long range, often before the radar needs to be used at all.

All of it feeds one fused track picture rather than separate sensor displays. That fusion, more than the stealth or the speed, is what turns a Raptor pilot into someone who sees the fight developing while everyone else is still building a picture.

Upgrades since 2021 have replaced the mission computers with open-architecture processor modules, added MIDS-JTRS with two-way Link 16, and begun integrating an infrared search-and-track capability that was cut from the original design.

Armament: What the Raptor Carries

The main weapons bay holds six AIM-120 AMRAAMs, and two small side bays each hold one AIM-9 Sidewinder. That is the standard air-to-air loadout, and all of it sits inside the aircraft.

For strike missions the main bay swaps to two 1,000 lb GBU-32 JDAMs plus two AMRAAMs, or eight 250 lb GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs. A 20 mm M61A2 cannon with 480 rounds sits behind a door in the right wing root.

Four external hardpoints exist for ferry tanks and can carry stores, but hanging anything under the wings destroys the radar signature. In practice they are used to get the aircraft somewhere, not to fight with.

Explaining the Numbers

The full specification table for the aircraft is on this page. A few of the figures deserve context that a table cannot give.

The speeds are stored in knots because that is what aircrew use, but the F-22 is quoted in Mach almost everywhere else. Mach 2.25 at altitude is roughly 1,300 knots, and the Mach 1.76 supercruise figure is about 1,010 knots.

Range is the figure most often misread. The 1,600 nautical miles in the panel is a ferry-style range with two external tanks, not a combat figure.

Clean combat radius is about 460 nautical miles when 100 of them are flown in supercruise, roughly 595 nautical miles flown entirely subsonic, and about 750 nautical miles with two 600 gallon tanks. Ferry range reaches 1,740 nautical miles.

The thrust row shows the 35,000 lbf afterburning rating. Supercruise runs on the dry rating of about 26,000 lbf per engine, which is the number that actually explains the aircraft’s cruise performance.

Service ceiling is listed at 65,000 feet, the figure manufacturers’ data and standard references publish. The Air Force fact sheet says only “above 50,000 feet,” which is a deliberate floor rather than a contradiction.

Fuel capacity is published by the Air Force as 18,000 lb internally, or 26,000 lb with two external tanks. Converted at standard jet fuel density that is roughly 2,690 US gallons internally, which is what the panel shows.

Rate of climb is the one performance figure with no official number behind it. The Air Force has never published one, and the commonly cited “more than 62,000 feet per minute” comes from secondary references rather than a primary source.

Why Only 186 Were Built

The Air Force originally planned 750 Advanced Tactical Fighters as a one-for-one replacement for the F-15 fleet. The 1990 Major Aircraft Review cut that to 648, the 1993 Bottom-Up Review cut it to 442, and the service eventually settled on a requirement of 381.

Funding instability took it to 339 by 1997, and Congress nearly halted production outright in 1999. By 2003 the number was 277, and in 2004 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld cut procurement to 183 production aircraft while the Air Force still formally required 381.

The end came in April 2009, when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates called for production to stop after 187 aircraft. Congress agreed to the cap in July 2009, and the last jet rolled out in December 2011.

The stated reasoning was that the Raptor lacked relevance in the counterinsurgency wars of the 2000s and that resources were better spent on the multirole F-35 Lightning II. That judgment looks different now that peer competition has returned, and the Air Force had to extend 179 F-15C/Ds well past their planned retirement to cover the shortfall.

Congress asked the Air Force in 2016 to price a production restart. The 2017 answer was roughly $50 billion for 194 more jets, at $206 million to $216 million each, with first delivery in the mid-to-late 2020s. Nobody pursued it.

What an F-22 Raptor Costs

The Air Force fact sheet lists a unit cost of $143 million. That is the flyaway figure, covering the airframe, engines, avionics and mission equipment for one aircraft.

The program acquisition unit cost is a very different number. Total program cost reached about $67.3 billion in then-year dollars, including $32.4 billion of research and development, which works out to roughly $350 million to $370 million per aircraft delivered.

Both figures are correct, and the gap between them is the whole reason F-22 cost arguments never resolve. Spreading a fixed development bill across 195 airframes instead of the planned 750 nearly quadruples the apparent price of each one.

The incremental cost of building one additional Raptor in 2009, the last procurement year, was estimated at $138 million.

The Raptor’s Combat Record

The F-22 flew its first combat sorties on 22 September 2014, dropping GPS-guided bombs on Islamic State targets near the Tishrin Dam during the opening strikes of Operation Inherent Resolve. Between September 2014 and July 2015 it flew 204 sorties over Syria.

Most of that work was not bombing. The Raptor spent its Syria deployment gathering and distributing situational awareness for other aircraft and deterring Syrian, Russian and Iranian jets from interfering with coalition operations.

Its first air-to-air kill did not come until 4 February 2023, when an F-22 of the 1st Fighter Wing shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina at around 60,000 to 65,000 feet. Further high-altitude objects were downed over Alaska and the Yukon the following week.

Before that, the type spent sixteen years doing the quieter work: intercepting Russian Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers off Alaska, rotating through Kadena Air Base in Japan, and deploying to the Middle East from 2009 onward.

More recently, F-22s were used alongside F-35s to draw surface-to-air missile fire ahead of bomber runs during the June 2025 strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, and deployed to Israel in February 2026 for Operation Epic Fury.

The Block 20 Problem

Not every F-22 is a combat aircraft. Of the 186 operational jets, 74 were built as Block 10 and Block 20 training airframes and 112 as Block 30 and Block 35 combat aircraft.

The Air Force has tried repeatedly since 2022 to divest roughly 32 non-combat-coded Block 20 jets, arguing they are obsolescent, unsuitable even for training, and that upgrading them to combat standard would cost about $3.5 billion.

Congress has refused every time, passing language in back-to-back defense bills prohibiting the retirements. In July 2026 the House voted to extend that prohibition to 2032.

Lockheed Martin has since proposed modifying 35 Block 20 airframes to Block 30/35 combat configuration, which would give the Air Force a larger combat fleet than it currently has without restarting the line.

Upgrades and the Road to the F-47

The Raptor is not being run out. The fiscal 2026 budget requested roughly $90 million for a “viability” package built around four areas: stealth, sensing, electronic warfare and sustainment.

Work in progress includes the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, more durable low-observable coatings, all-aspect infrared sensors, a Scorpion helmet-mounted display, low-drag stealthy external tanks and pylons, and manned-unmanned teaming with collaborative combat aircraft.

Retirement is expected to begin in the 2030s as the Boeing F-47 arrives from the Next Generation Air Dominance program. Air Force leadership has been careful to say the F-47 is not a straight replacement for the Raptor, and the F-22 is increasingly used as a testbed for sixth-generation fighter technologies.

F-22 vs F-35: Different Jobs

The comparison comes up constantly and it is mostly a category error. The F-22 is an air superiority fighter built to win the air battle. The F-35 is a strike fighter built to survive a defended battlespace and share data across a whole force.

The Raptor is faster, climbs harder, flies higher, supercruises and carries more air-to-air missiles internally. The Lightning II has newer sensors, better ground-attack integration, a far larger production run and, crucially, allies who are allowed to buy it.

In a within-visual-range fight the F-22 wins on energy and agility. In a networked campaign the F-35 contributes more. Our side-by-side F-22 vs F-35 comparison lays out the specifications in detail, and both sit near the top of the US fighter jet fleet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the F-22 Raptor so feared?

Because it can engage from a position its opponent cannot detect, and because it can leave whenever it wants. The combination of all-aspect stealth, an AESA radar that is hard to detect while transmitting, sensor fusion and supercruise means the F-22 typically fires first and disengages before the other aircraft has a weapons-quality track.

Its close-in ability compounds that. Thrust vectoring plus a thrust-to-weight ratio above 1.0 gives it post-stall maneuvers nothing else in service can follow.

How many F-22 Raptors does the USA have?

The Air Force fact sheet lists a total force inventory of 183 aircraft. That is 186 operational jets delivered, minus a handful lost to accidents, and does not include the eight test airframes.

Roughly 32 of those are non-combat-coded Block 20 training aircraft, so the true combat fleet is nearer 150.

Is the F-22 stronger than the F-35?

For air-to-air combat, yes. The F-22 is faster, more agile, flies higher, supercruises and carries six AMRAAMs plus two Sidewinders internally against the F-35’s four internal air-to-air missiles.

For strike, electronic warfare and networked operations, the F-35 is the more capable aircraft, and its sensors are a generation newer. They were designed for different jobs and were always meant to fly together.

Can China detect the F-22 Raptor?

Detecting it and targeting it are different problems. Low-frequency VHF and UHF search radars can register that something is present in a volume of sky, which is a well-understood limit of shaping-based stealth.

Converting that into a track precise enough to guide a missile is the hard part, and it is what the F-22’s shaping, coatings and electronic warfare suite are designed to prevent. Current upgrade spending on stealth and electronic warfare exists precisely because Chinese and Russian sensors keep improving.

What is the F-22 Raptor’s top speed?

Mach 2.25 at altitude, roughly 1,500 mph (2,414 km/h). At sea level it is limited to about Mach 1.21, around 800 knots. Its supercruise speed, held without afterburner, is Mach 1.76.

Can you buy an F-22 Raptor?

No. The 1998 Obey Amendment banned F-22 exports outright, and no foreign sale has ever been permitted, not even to close allies such as Japan and Australia who asked.

The production line has also been closed since 2011, so no new aircraft exists to sell. The F-35 is the exportable fifth-generation option.

Is the F-22 still in production?

No. Production ran from 1996 to 2011, and the final aircraft was delivered on 2 May 2012. Tooling and documentation were mothballed at the Sierra Army Depot for sustainment, but the Air Force concluded in 2017 that restarting the line would be cost-prohibitive.

When will the F-22 Raptor be retired?

The Air Force expects retirements to begin in the 2030s as the Boeing F-47 enters service. Congress has blocked earlier divestment of the Block 20 training fleet, and current spending is aimed at keeping the combat-coded jets relevant well into the next decade.