Q&A with F-15 and F-22 pilot "Cabo"

As aptly stated by Cabo (and by pretty much every pilot when asked about aircraft comparison), they're built and design for different purposes...

The Raptors big advantage is high and fast. Yet, high and fast increases your infrared signature dramatically. Which, is not good for a Stealth Fighter. Honestly, we hardly hear "supercruise" even being discussed much these days.

We do, here F-22 pilot Terry Scott comments at how Supercruise is such a game changer where the difference when intercepting something at .9 mach and 1.5 mach is so great that the enemy can’t react

https://youtu.be/AguVV7SH9eY

Plus, WVR dogfights happen at medium to low altitudes and is becoming more and more rare these days.

This is true for now but Here we have Lt.Col Flash McVay who is an F-16 Weapons school instructor and was also included in briefings concerned with what a potential near peer conflict can look like.

Interestingly, he postulates that the air war would look more like 1945 than 2005, with everyone being low observable, you may find yourself with 80 airplanes all in a little piece of sky.

https://youtu.be/K_Ybstp5rxA

Also here, Ward Carol and his guests mentions that the war in Ukraine is showing us that WVR is still a real thing that happens even when one side (Russia) has all the effective BVR missiles.

https://youtu.be/F0l9NXqoGF0

Name a fighter pilot that doesn't think his ride is the best in the business....

I couldn’t agree more, I’ve even heard of Tornado pilots come up with all kinds of reasons (excuses) on why the Torndao will not survive the merge.

But the difference with the Raptor is that everyone else is in awe of it. I personally have a compilation of pilot interviews from F-16 guys, Hornet guys, Typhoon guys, F-15 guys, Malaysian Hornet guys, and even arguably the best Tomcat pilot ever (Snort snodgrass) who are just floored by how good the Raptor is no matter the type of fight.

Their comments range from, “We were out there for a week getting shot by something we never saw” to “I was right on his 6 going straight down and he saw me, and basically did a summersault in the air and I went straight from being pure offensive to being pure defensive, it was the most unfair thing I ever saw”

Thats the difference, all F-35 pilots say it can BFM (depending on the configuration) but in the F-22, everyone says it, both it’s pilots and it’s victims

https://www.livescience.com/3032-fighte ... fleet.html[/quote]

The Raptors big advantage is high and fast. Yet, high and fast increases your infrared signature dramatically. Which, is not good for a Stealth Fighter. Honestly, we hardly hear "supercruise" even being discussed much these days.

We do, here F-22 pilot Terry Scott comments at how Supercruise is such a game changer where the difference when intercepting something at .9 mach and 1.5 mach is so great that the enemy can’t react

https://youtu.be/AguVV7SH9eY

Plus, WVR dogfights happen at medium to low altitudes and is becoming more and more rare these days.

This is true for now but Here we have Lt.Col Flash McVay who is an F-16 Weapons school instructor and was also included in briefings concerned with what a potential near peer conflict can look like.

Interestingly, he postulates that the air war would look more like 1945 than 2005, with everyone being low observable, you may find yourself with 80 airplanes all in a little piece of sky.

https://youtu.be/K_Ybstp5rxA

Also here, Ward Carol and his guests mentions that the war in Ukraine is showing us that WVR is still a real thing that happens even when one side (Russia) has all the effective BVR missiles.

https://youtu.be/F0l9NXqoGF0

Name a fighter pilot that doesn't think his ride is the best in the business....

I couldn’t agree more, I’ve even heard of Tornado pilots come up with all kinds of reasons (excuses) on why the Torndao will not survive the merge.

But the difference with the Raptor is that everyone else is in awe of it. I personally have a compilation of pilot interviews from F-16 guys, Hornet guys, Typhoon guys, F-15 guys, Malaysian Hornet guys, and even arguably the best Tomcat pilot ever (Snort snodgrass) who are just floored by how good the Raptor is no matter the type of fight.

Their comments range from, “We were out there for a week getting shot by something we never saw” to “I was right on his 6 going straight down and he saw me, and basically did a summersault in the air and I went straight from being pure offensive to being pure defensive, it was the most unfair thing I ever saw”

Thats the difference, all F-35 pilots say it can BFM (depending on the configuration) but in the F-22, everyone says it, both it’s pilots and it’s victims

https://www.livescience.com/3032-fighte ... fleet.html

[/quote]

Raptor is one of the few aircraft I would give a shot of getting into a high off boresight dogfight and preforming dominantly.


Did the F-22 and F-14D ever clash? I know there was a small window it was possible but I’d be interested if there was any sort of story to it. Given that the tomcat had the monster Radar and IRST I always thought it would have been an ideal aggressor for the Raptor in the 2000s-2010s.

No, Raptor didn't IOC until Dec 2005 and the last of the Tomcats was retired in Sep 2006, and they were fighting a war in that time. As to the IRST, it is the basis of the Legion pod for a reason, and documents about it are still ITAR controlled for a reason.

The Raptors big advantage is high and fast. Yet, high and fast increases your infrared signature dramatically. Which, is not good for a Stealth Fighter. Honestly, we hardly hear "supercruise" even being discussed much these days.

We do, here F-22 pilot Terry Scott comments at how Supercruise is such a game changer where the difference when intercepting something at .9 mach and 1.5 mach is so great that the enemy can’t react

https://youtu.be/AguVV7SH9eY

Plus, WVR dogfights happen at medium to low altitudes and is becoming more and more rare these days.

This is true for now but Here we have Lt.Col Flash McVay who is an F-16 Weapons school instructor and was also included in briefings concerned with what a potential near peer conflict can look like.

Interestingly, he postulates that the air war would look more like 1945 than 2005, with everyone being low observable, you may find yourself with 80 airplanes all in a little piece of sky.

https://youtu.be/K_Ybstp5rxA

Also here, Ward Carol and his guests mentions that the war in Ukraine is showing us that WVR is still a real thing that happens even when one side (Russia) has all the effective BVR missiles.

https://youtu.be/F0l9NXqoGF0

Name a fighter pilot that doesn't think his ride is the best in the business....

I couldn’t agree more, I’ve even heard of Tornado pilots come up with all kinds of reasons (excuses) on why the Torndao will not survive the merge.

But the difference with the Raptor is that everyone else is in awe of it. I personally have a compilation of pilot interviews from F-16 guys, Hornet guys, Typhoon guys, F-15 guys, Malaysian Hornet guys, and even arguably the best Tomcat pilot ever (Snort snodgrass) who are just floored by how good the Raptor is no matter the type of fight.

Their comments range from, “We were out there for a week getting shot by something we never saw” to “I was right on his 6 going straight down and he saw me, and basically did a summersault in the air and I went straight from being pure offensive to being pure defensive, it was the most unfair thing I ever saw”

Thats the difference, all F-35 pilots say it can BFM (depending on the configuration) but in the F-22, everyone says it, both it’s pilots and it’s victims

https://www.livescience.com/3032-fighte ... fleet.html

[/quote]

I still think the best quote concerning the kinematic qualities of the F-22 came from the fighter pilot podcast that you linked. The Jello (the host) recalled his interaction with an F-22. He said that tangling with it gave him a form of vertigo. My cave man mud slinger brain interprets one of his comments that he the F-22 was able to turn so quickly during one engagement that the F-22 shot him in the face.

Oldie but a goodie!