F-22 Raptor: 20 Years of Air Dominance

Gates is a fool, and should have his pension stopped. His claim now the F-22 was sacrificed for the B-21 is pure fiction, an effort to save face for his disaster decision to stop the F-22. He and Obama are reprehensible for those (and other) decisions. A true case of lack of leadership and leading from behind..

For the Russians, it must be rather sobering that we had superior engines in 1988. I get the feeling that even if they stole the info, they couldn't mass produce it given its tolerances, advanced materials etc. Ditto for stealth in general. The Chinese? Maybe. But building and deploying a 5th generation jet is clearly vexing. It's a LONG process, gobbles up insane amounts of $ and.... I don't think even the Chinese are there yet.

It may look the part, but these Russian and Chinese designs can't possibly compete without the engines, stealth and avionics necessary to compete with the F-22 and F-35. And provided we do 6th gen right (and buy enough of them), it's just going to get worse for them as the decades march on..

That is probably how the Raptor felt intecepting those Iranian Phantoms or stalking Russian Sucks over Syria.

Just imagine how the Iranians, Syrians, Russians and everyone else felt when they they didn’t know F-22s were around but were called over their radio to look over their shoulder. The look of surprise and shock no doubt on their faces when they saw the F-22’s nose pointing at them.



Then they see the Winders jutting out.



You know you can forget about trying any evasive maneuvers, because you’re dealing with the F-22, the most maneuverable production fighter ever built and it’ll just keep pointing it’s nose at you. If you’re the Raptor Driver, you’re thinking “Hmm…why waste a missile when I can just use my gun?” If you’re on the receiving end, it is quite unnerving your life could have been taken without you even knowing it...at close range.

Or…it can be a merciful God.

How it felt like taking a swim after watching 'Jaws'... Lol

I continue to wonder what the discussions are like among fighter pilots in Russia, China, Iran, and Syria.

Thats probably how their pilots talk, but their fans have a very different conversation.

The Americans are fools for putting all their eggs in the stealth basket, advancements in radar technology and IR/Optical as well as passive EM sensors, network integrated radar sites have already rendered Stealth obsolete or at least only useful against 3rd world adversaries.

Da, just look, even poor Serbia managed to shoot down their precious Stealth aircraft, just imagine if they tried to invade us, Stealth planes would drop like flies.

This is why Sukhoi took the smart approach, instead of heavily compromising performance in the name of stealth, Sukhoi placed heavy emphasis on aircraft performance with adequate levels of Stealth and more sensors to give their Raptor no place to hide.

But what if the F-22 does manage to detect you first and shoots first.

Don't be foolish, missile shots specially BVR shots have a very poor track record, their prized Aim-54 was hyped up to be able to hit drones from extreme ranges, but in actual combat, how many has it hit? 0 from USN serviceif I remember correctly. This will just get worse with the advent of our advanced DRFM bassed jammers. Trust me we will always make it to the merge. And in there, the superior performance and highly WVR centric doctrine of our pilots will surprise them.

Yes I heard that even Typhoons and Rafales beat their F-22 up close, in India Su-30MKI mopped the floor with Typhoons, I just feel sorry for them, spending billions on poor performing aircraft.

Just imagine the look on their faces when they see 3D TVC in all its glory eating up their billion dollar toys

I continue to wonder what the discussions are like among fighter pilots in Russia, China, Iran, and Syria.

Thats probably how their pilots talk, but their fans have a very different conversation.

The Americans are fools for putting all their eggs in the stealth basket, advancements in radar technology and IR/Optical as well as passive EM sensors, network integrated radar sites have already rendered Stealth obsolete or at least only useful against 3rd world adversaries.

Da, just look, even poor Serbia managed to shoot down their precious Stealth aircraft, just imagine if they tried to invade us, Stealth planes would drop like flies.

This is why Sukhoi took the smart approach, instead of heavily compromising performance in the name of stealth, Sukhoi placed heavy emphasis on aircraft performance with adequate levels of Stealth and more sensors to give their Raptor no place to hide.

But what if the F-22 does manage to detect you first and shoots first.

Don't be foolish, missile shots specially BVR shots have a very poor track record, their prized Aim-54 was hyped up to be able to hit drones from extreme ranges, but in actual combat, how many has it hit? 0 from USN serviceif I remember correctly. This will just get worse with the advent of our advanced DRFM bassed jammers. Trust me we will always make it to the merge. And in there, the superior performance and highly WVR centric doctrine of our pilots will surprise them.

Yes I heard that even Typhoons and Rafales beat their F-22 up close, in India Su-30MKI mopped the floor with Typhoons, I just feel sorry for them, spending billions on poor performing aircraft.

Just imagine the look on their faces when they see 3D TVC in all its glory eating up their billion dollar toys

Who cares about their deluded fans? Results talk.....bullsh*t walks......

Actually a simple comparison of Thrust to weight ratio between the F-22 vs Su-35 and the F-35A vs the Su-30 will shut them up. 100%, 60%, 40% fuel with 6 missiles each and the 5th gens will have better numbers.

It's too simplistic, I know, but most fanboys don't know that.
True story, a Flanker fan boy once accused me of not knowing what I was talking about because my calculations for the Su-30MKI was made with 6 missiles, he said the MKI could carry 12 missiles...
So I re-calculated, this time with 12 missiles, yup he just shot himself in the leg with that one.

Then you throw in the fact that flying clean means better fluid dynamic properties all around the aircraft, resulting in superior L/D, T/D and CL values and they're toast.

Oh and sacrificing performance for Stealth? Yeah that was true for 1st generation Stealth which was based on diamond panels. But 3rd generation Stealth shows that the F-22 and F-35 were superior to their 4th generation counterparts in All kinematic metrics.

Remember that 4th generation fighters sacrificed almost everything for performance and yet 5th gen surpassed their performance while maintaining Stealth.

Thats what billions of dollars worth of research can get you. the only down side is they are expensive.

Posted in Air Force Times. Article by Alex Lockie, Business Inside:

F-22 stealth jets got 587 aircraft to back off in their ‘combat surge’ over Syria

U.S. Air Force F-22s recently completed their first “combat surge” in operations over Syria, and in doing so deterred almost 600 Syria, Iranian and Russian combat aircraft in the crowded skies there, the Pentagon said.

Raptor pilots from the 94th Fighter Squadron out of Joint Base Langley-Eustis completed 590 individual flights, totaling 4,600 flight hours, with 4,250 pounds of ordnance dropped in their deployment to the region in the “first-ever F-22 Raptor combat surge.”

The Pentagon said the F-22s, assigned to the 380th Expeditionary Fighter Wing at Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, “deterred” 587 enemy aircraft in the process, suggesting the jet commands some respect against older, Russian-made models often in operation by Russian and Syrian forces. This surge saw F-22 operations maximized over a three-day period.

Unlike any other battle space today, U.S. forces on the ground in Syria have come under threat from enemy airpower.

F-22s on this deployment escorted Navy F/A-18s as part of their mission. In June 2017, Lt. Cmdr. Mike “MOB” Tremel, a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet pilot, scored the U.S.’s first air-to-air kill in years after downing a Syrian Su-22 that threatened US forces in the country.

The stealth fighter pilots defended U.S. forces against enemy bomber aircraft and also backed up U.S., U.K., and French forces when they struck Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the country’s west in response to chemical weapons attacks.

The F-22s flew "deep into Syrian territory, facing both enemy fighters and surface-to-air missile systems," the Pentagon said.

While no US or allied aircraft went down, photos from the most recent U.S. attack on Syria’s government show the country’s air defenses firing blindly into the night sky as the F-22s worked overhead.

The F-22 has encountered enemy fighter jets above Syria before, but the Pentagon has only reported relatively safe interactions and intercepts.

Long ago, some have said the F-22 will shorten wars and save lives. Had the US wanted to, how many kills would the F-22 have tallied up to this point? If the kills were happening, would the other side continue to want to fight or bury their jets in the sand like the Iraqis did? In its A2G role, how much damage, destruction and kills did it achieve dropping ordnance on ground targets?

For 20+ years, there’s been one word that has described the F-22: Dominant.

Lol.. Only 4,250 lbs??? What's that, like 4x 1k JDAMs and an SDB thrown in for good measure?

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your ... ver-syria/

There are those that would have you believe the F-22 wasn't worth the $. Obama and Gates were of this opinion, and it didn't take but a few years to judge their mistake costly.

So now the revisionist history is this: They cancelled the F-22 to make room for the B-21!!!

Yep, that's the party line now. Funny how nobody every heard of such a thing when they cancelled it. Oh no, it was all about fighting radicals using pickup tricks and AK's. The US had no near peer adversary, they were both way behind. It would be another decade before their 5th gens flew. Oh, how wonderful it must have been to be a fly on the wall when the J-20 took off for its maiden flight when Gates was in China! Credit to them for sticking it to him and making him look like the fool that he is.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Gates should have his pension yanked for such an onerous mistake. Obama got what he deserved, having to pass the torch to a man he made fun of and dismissed (repeatedly). I'd have killed to be in the limo with them on the way to the inauguration.

All of which brings us here: The F-22/F-15 combo suspends American air dominance on a very dicey 400 aircraft thread. You can make the case we have a 1,000 F-16's and 220 more F-15E's in an emergency, but those aircraft are duly matched with Russian and Chinas's Flankers and J-10B's/C's. You can also make the case the F-35 will be a very good air superiority platform. But as is the case with our F-16's and F-15E's, that's not really what they were intended for. Certainly not what the USAF wants to use them for. It'll be primarily air to ground for a LONG time...

But then, what did you expect from a US President and appointed Secretary of Defense that literally flew around the world apologizing for America, giving billions to rogue nations like Iran and treated our servicemen like 2nd class citizens?

1 fighter squadron (18 fighters?) against 600 enemies.
So much for double-digit SAMs and Su-35s, LOL.
What's the operating word for that?
Utter and complete DOMINANCE.

In other words, 587 pairs of soiled underpants...

New video of performance in Mar this year. The 360 backflip at 11:50 seems new:

New video of performance in Mar this year. The 360 backflip at 11:50 seems new:

That is their powerloop followed by their loaded roll. They've been doing that for awhile now.